LAW AND ORDER

THANKS largely to the current state of law enforcement, we now live in a society where old people are afraid to go out at night, where even in their own homes they are at serious risk of violence, where indeed all of us are guaranteed being a victim of crime at least once.

This happy state of affairs is not unsurprisingly defended by Peter Winstanley (HAS, May 22) because it is people who share his ideas who are responsible for bringing it about.

As for everyone else, I would urge you to defend yourself if attacked to the very best of your ability. That way you might not stay out of prison, but you just might stay out of hospital or your grave, and I know where I'd rather be.

Three cheers for Tony Martin. - T Kelly, Crook.

IDENTITY CARDS

THE Government's plan to bring in ID cards is nothing but an expensive gimmick. The Government's own figures show introducing ID cards will cost around £3bn.

The Government's own figures show that ID cards will do little to reduce crime or benefit fraud.

Other countries with expensive ID cards have exactly the same problems we do. That £3bn could be spent in a way that would really reduce crime, putting more bobbies on the beat, rather than wasted on yet another New Labour gimmick. - Paul Leake, Durham.

MOTOR CYCLING

AS a keen off-road motorcyclist I wonder when these irresponsible youngsters are going to stop spoiling our sport.

It is due to their misuse and abuse of these types of machines that we as club members are losing access to land to hold events on.

And we the serious competitors find ourselves with nowhere to practice as the public sees us all as tarred with the same brush.

Surely the parents must know their children are out on these machines, and unsupervised, like any machine, they are dangerous.

So let's stop the minority spoiling it for the majority. - I White, Hurworth.

UN SANCTIONS

WHEN we complained that sanctions were killing tens of thousand of Iraqi children through malnutrition and disease, we were told we had fallen for Saddam's propaganda.

The oil-for-food programme, they said, provided all the necessary funds for food, medicines, medical equipment and infrastructure repairs; the trouble was that Saddam kept all the money for himself and his cronies so that he could blame the West for the suffering of his people.

If this were true, there would have been no immediate need to lift the sanctions - removing Saddam would have solved the problem. By using the lifting of sanctions as a lever to persuade the world to sideline the UN, and to legitimise their occupation of Iraq, Britain and the US have tacitly admitted that we were telling the truth all along. - Pete Winstanley, Durham.

POST OFFICES

IT is simply wrong to blame the closure of village post offices on the Government's plans to pay benefits electronically. If customers want to continue to collect their benefits, weekly, from the post office in person, they can.

They will be able to choose between a current account, a basic bank account with Post Office access, or the new Post Office card account.

Meanwhile, the Government has provided £500m to computerise the Post Office's counter services and announced a further £450m to help support the rural network over the next three years, as well as giving the Post Office a contract for the card account that is potentially worth £1bn. Rural post offices in the North-East are facing the same pressures as other rural shops and businesses - they need to find new ways of getting customers in through the doors.

Nor is it true to say that nobody wants the new Direct Payment system. Over half of all pensioners are already paid directly into an account and have no problems. So far, over 250,000 people have requested the Post Office card account and this number is rising every day. - Andy Collins, Department for Work and Pensions.

YOUR readers may be aware of concerns about the Government's changes to the way benefits are paid.

Since April, some people have been unable to collect their pension or benefits in cash at their local post offices.

They have to have the money paid into a bank account, or to open a Post Office Card Account and then withdraw the cash.

But the Government has made it too difficult for people to open these Post Office accounts.

This new system will apply to everyone within the next two years. It will put local post offices, which provide a valuable service in so many communities, under threat because some people will stop using their counter services and stop shopping there.

It will also make life more difficult for many of the most vulnerable in our local communities and the arrangements for relations or friends to collect benefits for them are inadequate. Indeed, 70 per cent receiving pensions or benefits want to continue to receive payments in cash over the counter in their local post office. And I believe they should be able to do so.

So far, almost 40 per cent of those asked by the Government to move to the new system have not done so. It is not clear what is to become of them when their order books are withdrawn.

It should be made easier to open a Post Office Card account and special arrangements must be put in place to meet the needs of vulnerable people. - Anne McIntosh, Member of Parliament for the Vale of York.