THANKS for reporting how police had to go begging, cap in hand to charity for money to pay for equipment needed by a beat officer.

The Citizen's front page story Sorry Wrong Number will add to local peoples' doubts whether the police are getting the back up, resources and powers they need to tackle the serious law and order problems we now face.

While some improvements perhaps could be made at a local level, crime and violence in our area can't be beaten without support from a government with a determined realistic policy to protect the public.

But though the Conservatives have won over many voters since 1979 by promising to be tough on crime, after 17 years in power they've failed miserably. More and more crimes are unsolved and unpunished and the police's job has been made harder by Tory half-baked gimmicks, meddling, money-wasting and incompetence.

Soon, we'll all have a chance to pass judgement on the Conservative's criminal negligence of the public's safety. We should sentence them to at least five years in opposition.

Brian Ogston,

Morecambe.

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