Letters: Rape law

Dame Helen Mirren talks about a crime that has been on our statute books, wrongly, for centuries ("Mirren provokes furore with views on sex attackers", 1 September). "Rape", while defined as penile penetration, is about the despoiling of property, historically the unspoilt body of a woman, belonging to a man.

To catch up with even the 20th century, the law should be replaced with the simpler "sexual assault", with degrees of severity, and factors such as degradation to be considered. This way, it will be irrelevant what implement may be used. The crime is one of power over another, and the severity levels vary so much that punishments should be scaled by a judge, to a maximum of life imprisonment.

Failed prosecutions would be drastically reduced, because defence lawyers would no longer be destroying the victim on the witness stand asking her if she was so sure it wasn't a finger, and victims would be far less stigmatised than is now the case.

The drunken, late declaration of lack of interest in Dame Helen's "date rape" scenario would also be a factor that mitigated against the stronger levels of punishment for the crime.

Patrick Graham

Minchinhampton, Gloucestershire

So Dame Helen Mirren thinks that date rape is a "subtle part of the men/women relationship that has to be negotiated and worked out between them". What, afterwards, over a nice cup of tea?

The UK has the lowest conviction rate for rape in the developed world, so low that it is almost a risk-free crime. This is primarily because of myths about rape, one of which is that it's only "real rape" if the rapist is a stranger. Research has also shown that juries often base their decision-making on preconceived notions about how women should behave rather than the facts of the case.

A recent ICM poll found that almost a quarter of men thought a woman was partly responsible for being raped if she wore sexy clothing. Another study, by Rape Crisis Scotland, found that 40 per cent of adults surveyed thought a woman could be held partly responsible for a rape attack if she put herself in a "risky" situation by, for instance, going home with a man.

We'll begin to reduce the prevalence of rape only when men's behaviour is put under a critical spotlight in the same way as women's. How about starting with a warning to men that they shouldn't go out and get drunk in case they rape someone?

Janet Maitland

London N2

History's verdict on Bush will be harsh

Rupert Cornwell makes a valiant effort to recast George Bush as a great success ("Bush: Have we misunderestimated him?", 1 September). Nice try, but he is over-misunderestimating Bush's failures in the Middle East.

Instead of a prosperous liberated post-Saddam Iraq, Bush has inaugurated a fractured, unstable, divided, blood-soaked country that has been plundered by corruption, not least from American companies. The dire post-war management will be the text-book for decades on how not to run an occupation.

Similarly, Bush could have hardly done more to thwart an Israeli-Palestinian peace process for the past eight years. When Bush finally initiated the Annapolis process, the immediate Israeli reaction was to accelerate its illegal colonisation programme as a public V-sign to its main patron. Bush effectively gave up.

The US was also instrumental in blocking any Israeli-Syrian rapprochement, and Bush's disastrous policy on Lebanon has seen the country agonisingly revisit its civil war past. All this, together with ramped-up tensions with Iran, has contributed to record high oil prices and a global economic downturn.

Bush's legacy is one of conflict, division and increased support for extremism, compounded by the shredding of international law and human rights. His successor will need more than four years to turn this around.

Chris Doyle

Director, Council for Arab-British Understanding, London EC4

Rupert Cornwell's article misses its mark, as a single sentence betrays: "Bush has undeniably performed his basic duty of keeping the country safe."

Nowhere does the Constitution of the United States or the Oath of Office taken by all presidents, state that the basic duty of a president is to keep the country safe. George W Bush may repeat and repeat the notion that such is his primary duty, but he is a villain for attempting to act upon it. The duty of each president, according to the oath, always has been and remains twofold: faithfully executing his office, and preserving, protecting, and defending the country's Constitution.

Mr Cornwell says: "The second strike against Bush is more insidious, but perhaps even more serious. His refusal to accept responsibility has been buttressed by an expansion of executive power that arguably has violated the constitution." In truth, that quasi-monarchical expansion of executive power has very nearly shredded the Constitution, which is now in grave peril. In peril, too, is the country itself, for without the Constitution the fabric of the United States, as a "nation under law", disintegrates.

The answer to Mr Cornwell's question whether Bush "can buy redemption in the history books" must therefore be a resounding no. At least that will be the answer if the history books are written by Americans.

Anne G H Rounds

Charleston, South Carolina, USA

It is very disappointing to read Rupert Cornwell (of all people) pointing out – apparently in mitigation – that the war criminal Bush "has performed his basic duty of keeping the country safe". You could probably say the same about Genghis Khan.

Julie Harrison

Hertford

Blaming the drinker, not the wine

Jim Wilson of J Chandler, distributors of Buckfast Tonic Wine in Scotland, says: "The responsibility to behave properly and drink within reason lies with the drinker, not with the drink" ("An iconic tonic", 1 September).

Will Mr Wilson apply similar criteria to the drugs supplier who provides more and more people throughout the world with harmful drugs? Oh, it is purely the responsibility of the young person with no home, no job and no hope to act reasonably in taking drugs?

We have fundamental questions to ask of the suppliers of drugs and alcohol about the part they can play in stemming the social problems caused by excessive use of drugs and alcohol.

Ask the police, who have the unenviable task of trying to keep law and order in towns and cities at weekends. What about the social workers who have to deal with the effects on families that excessive use of drugs and alcohol can bring? Talk to the teachers and schools who see the results on children of these excesses by adults.

According to Mr Wilson, the suppliers can continue to supply drinks and drugs in the safe belief that their responsibility stops after they have sold the items.

Thank goodness for that. It is now only a question of spending millions to educate the drinkers and drug-takers about the dangers of excess. Perhaps the money can come from the vast profits made by the drinks and drugs industry?

Frank Glanz

West Wickham, Kent

Worrying lack of respect for cyclists

I am glad that James Daley got his bike back and an apology from the police (28 August), but I feel there are still unanswered questions.

First, if bike bombs are such a threat and need removal, will similar "rules" apply to cars? Don't hang about the traffic lights for too long or your car will be removed. If an object is suspected of being a bomb, I assume the area was properly cordoned off and the bomb disposal unit called? It sounds like a nonsense response from the police.

The police have hundreds of bikes hidden from view and their lawful owners; I assume most of them were picked up in a manner similar to what happened to Mr Daley. The lack of respect that the police and society display for cyclists is worrying and costs cyclists' lives. In a time when cycling is one of the cures for many of society's ills – obesity, credit crunch, global warming and pollution – we are still treated by society as a weird sect who have unbelievably opted to reject living in a tin box to embrace the society around us.

We really need to provide secure cycle storage to encourage cyclists out of their cars. Bus and train stations seem to have excellent bike storage facilities, but usually it is simply a matter of finding something to chain it to. Until society, government and the police view cycling as a practical solution to the country's problems and offer some real measures to make cycling more convenient, then we will be forever be on the edges of society.

Alan Bath

Dunfermline, Fife

New Labour woos the Arab oil money

The sale of Manchester City to the Abu Dhabi Group (front page, 2 September) sums up New Labour: make life in Britain easy for billionaires so they will come and pay for bread and circuses to keep the population quiet.

And cash in on our imperial policies which keep the Arab world divided so oil-rich enclaves will invest in us instead of poorer fellow Arabs. We'd better get them to pay for the London Olympics while the going is good.

P J Stewart

Oxford

The "tiny Gulf state of Abu Dhabi" is not tiny. There are indeed "tiny"" states in the UAE, but Abu Dhabi is not one of them.

Bill Torrance

Bromley, Kent

Community orders must be tightened

Frances Crook is right about effective community sentences (20 August), but it is far from true that the "vast majority" of these are successful. More than a third of unpaid work requirements are not completed, and about half of those in community sentences reoffend within two years.

Since offenders who go to prison generally will have committed more serious crimes, or will have had community sentences already, there is no conclusive evidence that community sentences are better than imprisonment at reducing re-offending. Both fail, often.

If weak community sentences are used simply because the Government has failed to supply adequate prison capacity, public confidence in these disposals will be undermined further. We should redesign community sentences to make them robust, ensuring compliance and setting an explicit goal to prevent further offending.

Nick Herbert MP

Shadow Secretary of State for Justice, House of Commons

US politicos behave as new plutocracy

In saying "the American political system is incomparably superior to our own" (Opinion, 30 August), Matthew Norman seems to have been carried away by all the hoop-la and homespun homilies of the US showbiz conventions.

The eye-watering campaign contributions of corporate America make Lord Levy's efforts for New Labour look like a whip-round at the Wheeltappers' and Shunters' Social club, and explain the watered-down nature of Obama's healthcare proposals, his flip-flops over offshore drilling, and the reining in of McCain's maverick tendencies.

Both candidates are in hock to vested interests. The US political system is turning into a full-blown plutocracy.

Charles Hopkins

Norwich

Briefly...

Funny fundamentalists

Andrew Adonis, the Schools minister, has described those who criticise faith schools as "fundamentalist secularists". What will he say next? That doctors and micro-biologists who peddle the idea that viruses and bacteria, rather than God, cause disease are no more than fundamentalist scientists?

S McBride

Coventry

TV cheats only fined

In response to "UN says sexual discrimination is rife in Britain" (2 September), I would like to make clear that you cannot be imprisoned for non-payment of a TV licence. A custodial sentence can be imposed as a result of non-payment of court fines, including fines for failure to have a TV licence. This is a matter strictly for the courts. For 2006, the latest Home Office figures available, only three women were imprisoned for non-payment of TV licence fines. They may also have had other unpaid fines.

Ian Fannon

TV Licensing, London WC2

Caught on fly

On the subject of how to kill flies (letters, 30 August), I recall my late Uncle Sam's experience with a patented method. The advertisement stated, "Guaranteed fly killer. Cannot fail if used as directed". Intrigued, my uncle sent off the required five shillings (this was more than 50 years ago). He received a package containing two wooden blocks about 6ins long, labelled A and B. The instructions read, "Take block A in your left hand. Place fly upon it and strike smartly with block B".

George Haycock

London SE3

Ireland wasn't bombed

The Israeli correspondent who justifies Israel's attack on Lebanon as "the normal response of any government whose people have suffered continual terrorism from a neighbour's territory" (letter, 2 September) , calls it a reaction, not an attack. We suffered continual terrorist attacks from the Provisional IRA, many of whose members lived freely in the Irish Republic and who had supporters in all the Irish governing parties. At no time did any British government consider it appropriate or desirable to reduce the Irish Republic's infrastructure to ruins, as a response to these attacks.

Brian Binney

Newcastle upon Tyne

No bright sparkie

It is not only the misplacing of apostrophes that causes confusion. My husband recently spotted this slogan on a van advertising an electrical repair service, "Were here to help".

Louise Amor

Hathern, Leicestershire