MARGARET Harper says "everyone knows someone who has been a victim of crime" Evening News, Saturday, October 23) and proposes increasing the numbers of police officers by 633.

Who is going to pay for that vast increase in staff? Who is going to pay the resultant massive increases in police pension liability? Why doesn't Margaret Harper define the problem she is trying to solve?

Shouldn't everyone who knows someone who has been a victim of crime tell Margaret Harper that crime is totally out of control under Labour? Why isn't she concluding that that the lawbreakers can break the law repeatedly with absolute impunity?

Why isn't she asking why we regularly see lawbreakers being repeatedly brought before the courts with dozens, if not hundreds, of offences on their "criminal record?"

Wouldn't answering those questions reveal that the problem isn't with our police, but with our justice system?

Shouldn't she be asking why our justice system is now a sick joke?

Instead of more costly police, or tinkering with reams of red tape, why isn't there a mandatory jail sentence of one year, for any second offence, and why isn't the sentence doubled for every subsequent offence?

Don't we have the inalienable right to forcibly exclude those who will not abide by our laws? Wouldn't that leave lawbreakers with one choice - obey the law, or go to prison?

N TAYLOR,

Worcester.