THIS country must be the laughing stock of Europe.

We continually handle law-breakers with kid gloves. We're a soft nation.

We dole out laughable punishments for serious crimes - and instead of deterrents, we extend invitations for others to offend.

During last Sunday's derby match between Burnley and Blackburn, three people managed to get onto the pitch.

One was a Burnley fan who was able to race the length of the field to wave a flag in front of away fans, before grabbing a ball and scoring a 25-yarder.

The second was bald break-dancing streaker Mark Hargreaves, who performed his routine on the right wing, and ambled off at leisure.

The third was thug Michael Lewis, who, despite being banned from every football ground in the country, was able to get on the pitch, threaten Robbie Savage and assault two police officers.

As Rovers boss Mark Hughes put it, he could easily have had a knife.

I accept that it's difficult to stop individuals from getting onto the field of play during a game.

But I don't accept how long each invader was allowed to stay on the pitch before being tackled.

Stewards and police at Turf Moor should take responsibilty and make sure this never happens again -- for the safety of everyone in the stadium.

The main concern though is that punishments aren't harsh enough when offenders are caught.

Like America - especially post 9/11 - there must be ZERO TOLERANCE.

And that means towards any person invading a pitch, whether it's a streaker or a potentially violent 'fan'.

The pictures above illustrate the difference between the countries.

On the right, is Burnley streaker Hargreaves, chatting to police in his boxer shorts. Yesterday, he was fined £200 plus costs.

On the left is Liverpool's serial streaker Mark Roberts, who ran onto the pitch at last year's Super Bowl in Houston.

Within seconds, he was surrounded by armed police, handcuffed and carted off to a cell.

He was threatened with the maximum sentence of six months' imprisonment and a $2,000 fine.

He eventually escaped with a fine, but only after the scare of his life, and you can be sure he won't be stripping off in the States again.

This country needs to take the same hard-line action.

If we want deterrents, we need punishments that scare the living daylights out of people.

That means banning offenders for life, handing out huge fines and sending them to jail if necessary.

If you think that's too harsh, then don't commit the crime.