When judges were tougher

Following on from Judge Peter Bowers praising a burglar for courage and giving him a soft sentence, we now have Judge Carol Hagen doling out another series of soft sentences because of the cost of imprisonment.

I recall, as a solicitor’s clerk, trying to get bail for a client whose father had died. The judge I appeared before reluctantly granted bail with the comment, “Mr Hyde, you tell him that if he so much as breaks wind out of order he will be back in jail so fast that his feet won’t touch the ground.”

I did just that and he was back in prison just after the funeral had taken place.

Costly accident

From: MJ Thompson, Cantley, Doncaster.

Concerning letters about the burden on the car driver, I was involved in a recent incident where a boy came out from behind a parked car on his 
bicycle as I was driving down 
the street.

Luckily, I was driving at 30mph and the boy only suffered minor injuries, but his bicycle caused £400 damage to my car. I will have to pay for the repairs myself as the police inform me they cannot make the boy’s mother pay.

As a pensioner this is going to be difficult. But if the fault was mine you can bet that she would be claiming off my car insurance.

Pull out now

From: David W Wright, Uppleby, Easingwold.

The latest deaths of American and British servicemen in “blue on green” incidents in Afghanistan must prove once and for all the utter futility of our involvement in this protracted and unwinnable conflict.

The Government must make plans to withdraw our forces before the end of 2012 and end this unjustified loss of life.

Our forces can be better employed in guarding our own borders against terrorist infriltration and the ever increasing threats of uncontrolled immigration.