Asbos, Charles's handshake and others

Support is needed for vulnerable people issued with Asbos

Support is needed for vulnerable people issued with Asbos

Sir: John Denham MP, Chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee (letter, 6 April), says that criticisms of Asbos are overstated and that the Government has it "about right". It's a pity then that some of the Government's recommendations in their Guide to Anti-Social Behaviour Orders and Acceptable Behaviour Contracts seem not to have been read by some of the local authorities who are issuing Asbos. The Guide states that "if there is evidence to suggest that the person against whom the order is being sought is suffering from drug, alcohol or mental health problems ... support should be provided by social services or other support agencies".

In February 2004, a vulnerable young man in my area, with mental health and alcohol problems, who had been homeless and living on the streets for two years, was issued with an Asbo, and had many restrictions placed on him. No support was offered to him.

The young man concerned breached the order within a week, which was dealt with by another arrest and prosecution. Having concluded that support would not be forthcoming, and knowing the likelihood of further arrests, he left Cornwall. Obviously his problems were shifted elsewhere, to various cities in the southwest, and ultimately to an untimely death in Bristol a year on from the original conviction.

From what I understand magistrates have no powers to order assessments themselves. In this case the local authority having failed to make an assessment, an Asbo was applied for by the police alone. What happens to a convicted person's civil liberties, and their right to have their mental health and like issues taken into account? These points need to be addressed; one person's death is one person too many.

AUDREY R COOKE
Penzance, Cornwall

Sir: John Denham might feel disappointed that criticisms levelled at Asbos were attributed to the recent Home Affairs Committee report. Yet his Committee's report acknowledges that there is "a paucity of hard evidence as to whether the problem of anti-social behaviour (ASB) is being tackled effectively" and that "there is little hard evidence as to the extent of ASB and whether this has changed over time". Moreover, the report makes the welcome call for the Home Office to commission "wide-ranging research" into the possible inappropriate use of Asbos.

This does suggest a recognition by the Committee that all is not well with the Asbo and the Government's overall anti-social behaviour strategy.

RICHARD GARSIDE
Director, Crime and Society Foundation
London WC2

Prince Charles had to shake Mugabe's hand

Sir: My customary respect for The Independent took something of a nosedive with its front page story headed "Mr. Mugabe, I presume" (9 April) concerning the Prince of Wales's exchange of the peace with the Zimbabwean president during the Pope's funeral mass.

As anyone with a cursory knowledge of the Christian liturgy would know, the exchange of the peace is a gesture meaning just that, and is not reserved for those you happen to like or approve of, but is rather a reminder of Christ's commandment that we love one other (including our enemies) as He has loved us. For the Prince to have refused to have exchanged the peace with anyone as a political gesture would have been wholly out of order during the funeral of a man who had worked all his life, and especially during his pontificate, for peace and reconciliation in the world. I cannot imagine the late Pope refusing to exchange the Peace with any political leader, no matter how abhorrent their regime might be - and as Mugabe's unquestionably is.

ROGER BASTABLE
Crawley, West Sussex

Sir: Your front page article berating Prince Charles demonstrates that anyone who has not previously attended Mass should certainly not be sent to cover a Pope's funeral.

The point in the liturgy when the congregation are invited to show each other the sign of peace is a moment of reconciliation. It would be against the spirit of this part of the Mass to decide whose hand to take and whose to refuse. Given the assembled ranks of tyrants who surrounded Prince Charles on that sad occasion, he would have been hard pressed indeed to decide whose hand to accept. Mugabe was a stark proxy for the rest of them.

PETER GRANT
Peterborough

Sir: You commit a gaffe in failing to distinguish between a handshake and exchanging the sign of Christ's peace. The latter involves the recognition that all human beings are sinners in need of Christ (Charles, Mugabe, Cahal Milmo and myself amongst them). It has absolutely nothing to do with extending courtesy or implying approval of the other person. As an anti-monarchist, Plaid Cymru supporter, I would decline to shake hands with Charles and his mother but I would never refuse to exchange the sign of peace with them.

SUSAN PAGE
Neath, Port Talbot

Sir: A "royal source", commenting on Prince Charles's handshake with Robert Mugabe, said: "There was nothing the Prince could do. If somebody thrusts their hand into yours, then you have no choice". Come on!

The process of a direct withdrawal of the hand is a simple anatomical one, probably even taught in "public" schools. Moreover, as we know from recent incidents, "royals" can get away with anything, and an international incident might even have been helpful.

I recall a meeting between the late Michael Ramsey (Archbishop of Canterbury 1961-74) with a South African politician, either Verwoerd or Vorster. The photograph showed Ramsey with hands together, looking grim. When asked about this, he said, "It was entirely deliberate". I witnessed the same response at a conference in Chicago in 1978 when someone approached Ramsey, holding out his hand, and gave him greetings from Cardinal Cody, the local, ultra-reactionary archbishop. Ramsey turned away, and discussed liberation theology with some nearby students.

Ramsey was eccentric; but if Prince Charles's own eccentricity could be combined with greater political awareness, it could have some good effects.

The Rev KENNETH LEECH
Mossley, Ashton-under-Lyne

Sir: Surely the most important event of 8 April was not Prince Charles being taken advantage of by Robert Mugabe in an unpleasant publicity stunt? I was saddened to see a newspaper which usually uses its front pages so effectively to be giving this brutal dictator the publicity he sought. I am no fan of the royal family, but it seems to me Prince Charles reacted as any civilised person would. It is disappointing that you chose to publicise Mugabe's opportunism.

HANNAH MACKENZIE
Strawberry Hill, Middlesex

Teachers and ADHD

Sir: Few teachers would disagree with J Paul Branthwaite (letter, 8 April) that they are not qualified to disgnose ADHD in pupils. But even the least experienced of them can diagnose a disrupted lesson.

Mr Branthwaite distinguishes between the "disruptive pupil" and the pupil with ADHD. If the question is one of culpability, then the distinction is reasonable, but in purely practical terms, it does not exist. Whether deliberate or involuntary, disruption means that teachers cannot do their job. And as long as people expect them to recognise and accommodate every medical and social problem affecting pupils, it will be impossible for them to educate the rest.

ROBERT BOTTAMLEY
Hedon, East Yorkshire

Enduring love

Sir: Terence Blacker's article "Camilla could be the saving of the royals" (8 April) is a welcome and overdue antidote to the relentless, gleeful, spiteful ridicule heaped on the couple, largely by the press. Camilla's crime is that with neither youth nor extraordinary beauty to recommend her, she had the temerity to upstage, in the Prince of Wales's affections, a fairy-tale icon with an abundance of both "qualities". Charles's crime is to have experienced an enduring love for her. Whether their passion destroyed their marriages or whether they would have failed in any event will never be known.

Two conclusions can be drawn, however. The first is that, while there are laws to protect citizens of this country from discrimination on the grounds of race, religion, gender and disability, a woman's age and her less-than-Hollywood looks are fair game. The second is that it is doubtful in the extreme that this sanctimonious condemnation of the couple's adultery is delivered only by those with impeccable marital records.

In the 21st century, with all its emphasis on glitzy glamour and glossy magazines, one of the most eligible divorcés in the world is, after a love affair of 34 years, to marry a woman of ordinary looks, two years short of her bus pass. Journalists and others might sneer but to some of us it seems rather like the true love that does not alter "when it alteration finds".

ROSEMARY GORDON
Bristol

Gambling Bill costs

Sir: Tessa Jowell claims that the reduction in the number of super casinos allowed under the Gambling Bill will result in fewer jobs and less money coming into Britain (Business, 8 April).

But the Salvation Army and the Methodist church have always said that this should never have been a Bill about finances. The economic benefits of growth in the gambling industry have to be weighed against the serious social and economic costs of an increase in gambling addiction. That is why we are pleased that the Gambling Bill will introduce a more comprehensive regulatory regime and greater protection for vulnerable people, but with a significant reduction in some of the hardest and most addictive forms of gambling.

Cmmssr SHAW CLIFTON
Territorial Commander
The Salvation Army in the UK and Republic of Ireland

The Rev WILL MORREY
President of the Methodist Conference, The Methodist Church

The real Africa

Sir: Fergal Keane is right to say that the international media owe Africa an apology (Podium, 8 April). Hilary Anderson's BBC News at Ten report on cannibalism in the Congo last week is a prime example of the media putting the drama of despair above the opportunity for optimism. Anderson's report centred on a case of cannibalism two years ago, and described "the Congo now spiralling into upheaval again". But it comes soon after some of Congo's best news for months. Some 9,000 militia have at last been demobilised in Ituri with the help of the much-maligned UN troops; and in the Kivus, the Rwandan Hutu rebels who have been at the centre of so much of the conflict there have finally announced that they are ready to return to Rwanda. Terrible things are still happening in Ituri and the rest of eastern Congo. Much can still go wrong. But when journalists make the effort to report Africa at all, we need them to help us understand how things can go right, and not just titillate us with stories of savagery.

KATE WILSON
London SW19

A GP's view of stress

Sir: I am a GP and about a third of my workload is dedicated to dealing with stress, depression, anxiety and related conditions ("Stress is now the most likely reason for time off work," 8 April). In the present system if somebody is determined to be off with stress, he or she will be able to get their way. This has nothing to do with the GP having a low threshold for issuing sick notes. It is related to how our culture views stress, how people cope with what they perceive to be stress and the simple fact that there are many loopholes in the benefit system. I am all for the BMJ's suggestion that the job of providing sick notes should be taken away from GPs; after all, the GP is the patient's advocate, not policeman. And GPs have plenty more worthwhile things to do in a day than hand out medical certificates.

PETER DONK
Doncaster

Bad news buried

Sir: Could you please print a couple of pages of the bad news Blair and Bush have buried with the Pope?

MICHAEL POWLOSKI
Ambleside, Cumbria

Blame for Rover's end

Sir: Jeremy Clarkson should accept some of the blame for the recent demise of the MG Rover Group. As the presenter of the Top Gear TV programme, he is constantly deriding this company's cars.

Nobody wants to own a car that is the subject of a national joke, so every scathing remark from him slashes the sales figures of new Rovers and reduces the resale values of used models. He should be more responsible in the way he wields his power, because it is very difficult to contradict a sneer.

BRIAN RUSHTON
Stourport on Severn, Worcestershire

Twice disenfranchised

Sir: I have no vote in the coming general election, having lived out of the country for more than 15 years. (It used to be 20, but Tony Blair reduced it to 15, presumably believing that most expats vote Tory). Nor can I vote in general elections in Luxembourg without becoming a citizen here. However, my annoyance at being dis-enfranchised is tempered by the fact that my party of choice, the Greens, have no chance of winning a seat under Britain's antediluvian electoral system.

HENRY WICKENS
Luxembourg

Heights of glory

Sir: As a patriotic Welshman I was mortified to read in your pages a description of our Snowdonian restaurant as "the highest slum in Wales" (report, 5 April). This is a grievous slur; it should correctly be described as "the highest slum in Britain".

Your correspondent's description of similar Swiss mountain facilities probably mean that we could go for the European accolade too, although modesty prevents us, as ever, from seeking glory.

VAUGHAN THOMAS.
Usk, Gwent