I AGREE strongly with West End Labour councillor David Whitaker's complaint about Howard Marks recent appearance at the council-run Platform theatre (Citizen: October 21).

Mr Marks is a celebrity partly because of his criminal past as a drug dealer/smuggler.

I think it's wrong for ex-criminals to profit financially from their crimes (eg, by selling their stories to newspapers for cash or, as in Mr Marks' case, charging £10 a ticket for a performance which includes anecdotes of his career as a drug-dealer).

If reformed crooks shouldn't make money out of crime then our council shouldn't put itself in a position where it could be accused of doing this, especially when so many local people are having a hard time because of drug abuse and crime.

The booking of Mr Marks at a council venue seems inconsistent with the council's sensible policy of firm action to combat crime, drug misuse and disorder.

It's a pity that Mr Paul Medhurst (Citizen letters: October 21) misunderstands protest against Howard Marks visit as small-minded prejudice.

This isn't a case of 'small minds' wanting to silence free speech on a controversial issue, it's about brave hearts wanting to free our community from the suffering caused by crime and illegal drugs.

Mr Medhurst says Marks is a hero. Wouldn't this word be better used to describe the local ambulance crews who very often nowadays are called out to revive drug-takers at risk of violence from the very people whose lives they've just saved?

Other local heroes are the ordinary people who resist the criminal and the drug-pusher despite danger of retaliation in many parts of our district and those people out of work or on very low pay who despite poverty resist the temptation to make money by crime and drug-pushing.

A socialist

Morecambe

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