I don’t think M Gorton was wasting time writing the letter ‘Scum get away with violence’ (LT, September 10).

I support this letter entirely and would like to take it a stage further.

The magistrates and judges in the UK are hamstrung by ineffectual and ludicrous laws which originate from the Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales.

These laws are formed by the strict adherence to the monstrous Human Rights Act which is nothing more than a fireproof charter for the criminal that leaves the innocent and vulnerable in ‘no man’s land’.

We as citizens of this country need to hound our MPs also to get this government to go to the country on the referendum for the reinstatement of capital punishment for certain crimes.

Going back to M Gorton’s letter, yes, let’s see hard labour introduced into the prison system for violent crime, with no hope of time off for good behaviour.

These people have, through their crimes, elected to be incarcerated and should not have privileges such as TV, gyms, mobile phones, air conditioning etc.

The velvet glove treatment that has been doled out by the judicial system over the last decade and has proved to be of no use whatsover to all law-abiding people in this country, and it needs replacing with the iron fist of punishment to fit the crime and stop paying homage to the do-gooding fools who think that giving chance after chance to evil men and women will somehow work in the end.

It won’t.

Chris Eggleston, Quebec Road, Blackburn.