IN THE light of a recent occurrence, there seems plenty to be said in favour of the government campaign to ensure children are not abducted as they walk to school.

Among the measures being urged on parents this week by public health minister Tessa Jowell are "crocodile chains" and "walking buses" in which youngsters are ferried between volunteers at agreed meeting points.

Fine. But isn't this only coping with the effects of our streets being no longer safe for children because paedophiles are out there on them? Surely, the real need is to get rid of them - by hanging all child sex murderers and locking up the abusers and molesters of children for life.

If our tough-on-crime government had the guts and gumption to do that, our children might be able to walk unsupervised to school without any fear

Instead, we find it pandering to paedophiles this week by once again seeking to lower the age of homosexual consent so that they can lawfully sleep with schoolboys. Ugh!

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