IAGREE with Mrs Gladys Robinson (Letters, March 27) -- corporal punishment would be the answer to a lot of our problems.

Only the other night, I was working on my girlfriend's car in Great Harwood when a group of youths raced on to the street, pursued by a man whose window they had just smashed.

Maybe if they had been more afraid of the consequences of their actions, instead of being all clued up on their rights, then that man would still have his window intact and my girlfriend would still have an aerial on her car.

The Government are facing a crisis shortage of teachers, which seems to be in secondary schools on the whole. Doesn't this tell the Government anything?

In my opinion, it is due mainly to the stress levels going through the roof, teachers have no powers of control over children in their care.

The problem is, children who are taught nothing of respect, but are informed in detail about their rights. Smacking a child is the most natural form of chastisement, right through the animal kingdom.

Give teachers, the police and parents the right to chastise children without legal reprisal. That way it would be fair then to hold parents jointly responsible for the actions of their children.

Let's stop being so arrogant in our "we are the supreme race" attitude and start doing things as Nature intended. We cannot build a utopia by trying to supersede the fundamental rules in nature. Surely, today's society is proof of that.

PAUL ANTHONY, Spring Avenue, Great Harwood.