IREAD with interest the letter from Pensioner, Blackburn (LET, March 17) about the growth of the mutant yob.

He suggested that over the past 20 years little has changed; other than to say things have got worse. I agree with part of what he writes, but take exemption to the idea that yobbish behaviour is genetic.

Without lengthy tests being undertake this idea cannot be proved or dismissed but environmental links are already proven in some cases. The young yobs of the eighties are the parents of today and if there is little change; then of course they breed brainless yobs, just as others have over the past decades.

What really interested me was his statement that they are all on benefits and that they should have these and their kids removed to be "brought up proper".

What he fails to understand is that some of the yobs are the offspring of the upper and middle classes.

Maybe a better solution would be to remove a sample at birth and run a 20-year test to establish or demolish the idea of the genetic/environmental link.

If at the conclusion of the tests a link is proved, compulsory sterilisation at birth may be the answer?

R HARVEY-MORGAN Snr, Barnes Avenue, Rawtenstall.