To deal with rising crime figures we need more police and thoughtful parenting

Your article on London crime makes a strong argument for more police on the beat. We have an escalating “war zones” mentality in our major cities which is starting to spill over into the smaller rural towns.

In my village we discovered the selling of Class A drugs by two individuals, but even after reporting them to the police no action was taken to remove them. There was no option but to take action ourselves. They have gone for now but the ever present fear that they will return hangs over us.

If the average police officer on the beat discovers a crime every 17 years surely that is a stronger argument for keeping officers on the streets than have them in cars or elsewhere. From a layman’s point of view, reducing police numbers has been an unmitigated disaster for the general public and the saving of money, in doing so our government has done us a terrible disservice which endangers and degrades our lives.

We are reaping the “benefits” of the financial savings which we, the electorate, allowed our past governments to implement.

My plea, from the heart, please get to grips with the current wave of violent crime. Save our children from the horrors of gangs, guns, knives and endless senseless violence. Special forces, major crime teams and fast response teams are no substitute from the prevention of crime on the streets. It’s where young offenders learn their trade.

All the policing in the world will not on its own prevent crime, parenting plays a major part too. If children have strong family interaction, attend school or college and integrate into the local community then, I believe,they will be less likely to be exposed to or influenced by criminal elements.

Just an old man’s opinion and forlorn hope, for what it’s worth.

Keith Poole
Basingstoke

Laura Dawson writes that she is yet to see a cogent argument for Brexit. I should like to hear a cogent argument to remain. Please could I offer one for leaving?

I was 18 in 1975 and voted to stay in the (then) EEC. In 2016 I voted to leave. Why? Nothing, whatsoever, to do with “returning Britain to how it was before WW2” or because I “just want to see white faces”. Those arguments which Remainers continually peddle out are facile nonsense.

I voted to leave after 43 years of reflection on the nature of this behemoth called the EU, a place of self-serving, rigid technocrats. I took my view from the dissident left (of which Jeremy Corbyn was a member).

Tony Benn and others were confirmed Eurosceptics. Please listen to his arguments – he could see exactly what the EU would become, and he was right. And no one was less racist than Tony Benn.

Look at what has happened to southern Europe, or do we choose to ignore that?

It strikes me that many Remainers have an idea, something they believe about the nature of the EU that simply does not exist and does not accord with the reality. Some people speak of changing the EU “from the inside”. Does they not see that we have already tried that on many occasions, and come back empty handed?

Someone said recently that the working classes of this saved this country (again) by voting Brexit. I cannot put it better.

They saw through this fantasy.

John Roberts
Wakefield

I don’t want Brexit and hope it fails. But if it does go through, I certainly don’t want substandard, trashy food imports from the US. If we do get to that stage, however, I propose that all food imported from the US should have a clear Stars and Stripes logo printed on mandatory, non-plastic packaging so that: a) it might deter them from sending it and; b) we know what to avoid if it does get here.

Patrick Cosgrove
Shropshire

In her new book All That Remains: a Life in Death, the famous Scottish forensic scientist Dame Sue Black predicts that assisted suicide will eventually be legalised. She warns that the desperate attempts by people dying in extremis, or their loved ones to end the nightmare without professional help can be “traumatic and violent”.

In fact physician-assisted suicide for an adult in a rational state of mind, whose terminal suffering is unbearable despite the best medical efforts, is surely an idea whose time has come. We spend our lives making decisions which govern our fate so why should the morals and standards of strangers govern the way we die?

Medicine keeps us healthy and living longer but the problems of terminal distress and quality of life remain. Far too often as a parish minister I saw it getting in the way of nature’s merciful release. Religious leaders may prevent their own people from accepting help but they’ve no right to block the escape hatch for others.

Rev Dr John Cameron
St Andrews

I have been treated to cancer now for some three years, and know the outlook is bleak. I have supported charities for years, and have not really thought about campaign slogans charities use. That is until the “Stand Up To Cancer” campaign. I find the slogan at best patronising. What do they think I do! I do not need others to tell me what to do, and I do not want others to do it for me. Of course I appreciate friends support, and none of them ask me to stand up to cancer, nor do they do so on my behalf.

Chris Healey
Hampshire