WHILE I am against capital punishment, I sympathise with Michael Gavin's remarks regarding the attitude of MPs to the subject (Letters, January 19).

I am convinced no matter how unpopular the Tories may now be that if they were at the next general election to promise to bring back hanging for certain murders, to abolish the Commission for Racial Equality and a policy for stopping all immigration into the UK, they would win it with a landslide.

BERT HARDWICK, Warner Street, Accrington.

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