TWO hundred years ago, Tom Paine, the Norfolk-born political writer completed his most famous book 'The Rights of Man.'

He proposed reforms such as the abolition of hereditary titles and the slave trade; Universal Suffrage, fixed-term Parliaments, payment of MPs and the creation of a state-funded health and education service. He also called for unemployment, sick and maternity benefits, old age pensions, the removal of the stamp tax on newspapers and books and legalised trade unions.

In response, the government ordered his arrest on the grounds of writing seditious literature. Now, in Britain, all of Tom Paine's proposals, bar one, have been achieved.

We still have hereditary and, indeed, created titles. Should these be abolished so that all people who live in Britain are simply citizens?

JOHN PORTER, Thwaites Road, Oswaldtwistle.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.