REGARDING the recent shootings in Tasmania and the slaughter of the innocents in Dunblane, and other similar incidents over the years, it's time something was done about potentially dangerous folk by placing them away from society in secure units. We have the legacy of Thatcherism to blame, in part, for her mistaken policy of closing lunatic asylums.

It's wrong to close such places as Calderstones, Langho Colony and Brockhall and then try to integrate the patients into society, For they don't always get the back-up they need. And how do those with schizophrenia cope? It beggars belief.

I once saw a programme on TV where a reporter went around London, pretending to have this terrible affliction, trying to get accommodation and help, with little success.

Even hospitals turned him away, all because of his irrationality. They just didn't want to know, as they were busy with other patients.

Our rundown National Health Service is badly underfunded, and top heavy with officialdom. Health should have priority. I'm afraid that, under the Tories, it won't improve.

So it's time for a change.

BRIAN WATSON, Rosehill Road, Burnley.

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