The police must lead the charge against the scourge of shoplifting

Telegraph

2 days ago

SIR – I doubt many of us care whether or not Sir Keir Starmer would call shoplifters 'scumbags' (report, August 12). The point is, what is he going to do about the problem? We are becoming a lawless society and if the police are not prepared even to attend incidents, let alone prosecute the perpetrators, there is little hope of things improving.
Sue Gowar
Elstead, Surrey
SIR – Matthew Barber, the police and crime commissioner for Thames Valley, has the audacity to say that the public's reluctance to tackle shoplifters is 'part of the problem' (report, August 13).
He further suggests that it is wrong to think that tackling thieves is just a job for the police. But this is precisely what they are what they are paid to do, unlike the general public.
Peter Rosie
Ringwood, Hampshire
SIR – To paraphrase Section 3 of the Criminal Law Act, any person may use necessary force to prevent injury to themselves or another; to prevent loss or damage to property; and to detain anyone at large.
It is incumbent on the police to arrest shoplifters. We also have a part to play.
Dennis Brant
London SE9
SIR – Shop theft often involves violence towards staff, including the use of knives. And verbal assault is still assault.
More community policing is necessary. When I was growing up in a Sussex village in the 1980s, it only needed a chocolate bar to go missing at the local shop for the resident police officer to be at the culprit's house for a conversation. Thus the slide into criminality was nipped in the bud. Less red tape also enabled the resident police officer to spend time in the community, reassuring people and deterring incidents such as shop theft. It's time to revisit this common sense.
In the meantime all incidents in shops need to be logged and reported to police. We are all in this together.
John Barstow
Pulborough, West Sussex
SIR – Is it any wonder that so many pharmacies are closing each week? The Government's subsidy for prescriptions doesn't cover their cost to the pharmacy, leaving many out of pocket. Now there is a surge in shoplifting (report, August 12). The police rarely come, and if they do, the culprits have long gone.
Overworked, underpaid and undervalued: more pharmacists will close their doors. Who can blame them?
Wendy Tanqueray
Esher, Surrey
SIR – Philip Johnston (Comment, August 13) writes that in London, at least we don't have to put troops on to the street to deal with crime. If we had to, where would we get them from?
Alan Orton
Leamington Spa, Warwickshire
Israel against Hamas
SIR – We are all well used to seeing the terrible pictures coming out of Gaza each day. I wonder, however, whether some are propaganda – aided by our own broadcast media, which does not always validate what is shown on our screens.
Israel is now being compared to the Nazi regime and accused of genocide by people who have little experience of the region or have not taken the time to educate themselves on the history of Israel and its fight since 1948 to be recognised by its neighbours.
Hamas is the elected government of the people of Gaza. It was Hamas that attacked Israel, committing atrocities against women and children and taking innocent hostages. It was Hamas that began an unprovoked war. To now say the war should be stopped before Hamas has been destroyed, renounced by its people or 'brought to justice' is not realistic.
The UN reports that it cannot deliver aid because this is too dangerous. The Israelis are not stopping aid, but Hamas appears intent on controlling the convoys and is threatening violence to anyone else who tries to do so.
Other Arab nations are calling for Hamas to step down. Maybe it is time we supported those who know more about this region than we do.
Mike McKone
Kirkby Stephen, Cumbria
SIR – Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's prime minister, claims that the photographs of starving children in Gaza are fake (report, August 11).
There is only one way he can prove his assertion, and that is by allowing the press free access into Gaza.
Anthony Haslam
Farnham, Surrey
Penalising success
SIR – I am horrified to hear that a cap is being considered on lifetime gifts (report, August 13).
I am in my late 50s and would like my hard work to benefit my children, but the incentive to keep building my balance sheet is fast disappearing.
We are becoming a country in which there is little reason to work hard and invest. The economically inactive are increasingly better off than those who seek to better themselves and their families. This path is leading to the rapid decline of our economy, and will end in disaster. To achieve a growing economy, work must pay and success should be rewarded rather than penalised.
William Burgess
Peterborough
Master of miniatures
SIR – I was fascinated to read your excellent obituary (August 13) of the miniaturist Bill Mundy.
He worked with my late husband, Jimmy McMullen, in Singapore, when Jimmy was managing director of Grant Advertising. After my husband's death, I asked Bill to paint two identical miniatures of him for my sons, Justin and Oliver. I believe, from what Bill told me, that these were the only identical pair he ever painted.
Lauren Groom
Salisbury, Wiltshire
Friendly advice
SIR – My Egyptian research student brought with him to London an old Arabic-to-English phrase book (Letters, August 11) he had found in a Cairo second-hand bookshop.
There was a whole chapter headed 'Making Friends', which included the useful sentence: 'Would you like to see the Pyramids by moonlight?'
J E Crooks
London SW15
Private school closures
SIR – For more than 50 years Abingdon Swimming Club has provided swimming lessons to all ages. My wife and her daughter have been involved in it, as both teachers and administrators.
Yesterday morning we received an email giving notice of the club's closure. The pool used for teaching is in Our Lady's Abingdon School, and the school is closing. The main reason given? The addition of VAT on private school fees.
While the closure of a private school may not affect too many people, the loss of the facilities the school provided to the wider community does, and is very sad.
The swimming club has tried to find alternative facilities within the local area but none are available. The other clubs that use the pool will presumably discover the same – and so our community risks losing an important service. It feels particularly upsetting that people who have worked hard to keep the club going through the years are now unable to do so through no fault of their own.
Our history and our ability to choose are being eroded little by little.
Alan Lewis
Radley, Oxfordshire
SIR – Congratulations to the Labour Government for achieving its primary aim: to close independent schools, thus hitting hard-working parents, putting teachers out of work and preventing students from attaining the qualifications they deserve.
Socialism at its very best.
Paul Ballard-Whyte
Oxford
Awesome sauce
SIR – Dr Edward Howell's use of roast beef with mint sauce as an example of a cultural culinary outrage is a poor one (Letters, August 13).
My family has served mint sauce with roast beef all my life and we're as English as they come. He should try it; it's rather good.
Mark Redhead
Oxford
SIR – Mint sauce was made for every Sunday roast in our house, irrespective of which meat was served.
Bill Winward
Calne, Wiltshire
SIR – On our first holiday in Australia in 1960, after emigrating from the UK, my mother was horrified to observe the man at the next table putting tomato sauce on his roast lamb.
Valerie O'Neill
Perth, Western Australia
The sea change in our understanding of citrus
SIR – It is hardly a surprise that sailors in the 19th century were more prone to suffering from scurvy while on land than at sea (report, August 11). Captain James Cook, the greatest explorer that ever lived, solved the scurvy issue in his first and second voyages of discovery in the 1760s and 1770s. Having done extensive research beforehand, Cook insisted that his crew and marines were fed sauerkraut and citrus fruits daily. Remarkably, not a single sailor succumbed to scurvy – in fact, none of his crew died from any disease until they reached Batavia (now Jakarta) in the Dutch East Indies, some two-and-a-half years after setting sail. It was an incredible feat at the time.
However, in Batavia, 30 crew died from dysentery, which was rife in the city and which tore through HMS Endeavour's members.
In recognition of his research, Cook was awarded the Royal Society's prestigious Copley Medal in 1776, and his methods became commonplace across the Royal Navy long before the 19th century.
Uninsured drivers are the biggest road menace
SIR – Although I support compulsory eye tests for over-70s (Letters, August 13), this overlooks a bigger danger. The Motor Insurers' Bureau estimates that there are 300,000 uninsured vehicles on our roads at any time, and that injuries caused by them cost the economy nearly £2.4bn a year.
Your own report (telegraph.co.uk, August 11) cites £7m in uninsured supercars seized this summer and a surge in uninsured Gen Z offenders. Linking the DVLA and Motor Insurance Database, with automatic number plate recognition issuing instant penalties, would close this loophole. Until then, law-abiding motorists will pay higher premiums.
Karen Geary
Blandford Forum, Dorset
SIR – Poor eyesight can occur at any age. Aviation licencing dealt with this many years ago. An official eye test can be followed by licence issue with a limitation. Eyesight is largely correctable, and the licence holder basically has to wear prescription glasses and carry a spare pair in order to exercise the privileges of the licence. Otherwise the medical certificate – and licence – is invalid. Safety will ultimately be controlled by insurance companies withdrawing cover or refusing to pay claims.
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