Clive Booth's letter (August 18) about the Conservatives' plans for crime should they win the next General Election is just another sign of the damaging short-termism on which they base their judgements and policies while continually failing to address the social and poverty issues which are the cause of crime.

Comments about zero tolerance and building more prisons are made because they rather ill-advisedly believe it will win them an election, notwithstanding the fact that crime doubled in the ten years or so when Margaret Thatcher was in power.

Prison is already known to be a poor deterrent and more likely to be a training ground for petty criminals to become even bigger criminals.

Locking more people up will not cut crime. Sweden has zero tolerance on drugs, I'm sure Mr Booth would support this.

Sweden also has the highest death rate from drugs in the whole of Europe. The more prohibitive and punitive the laws become the more crime and damage it creates.

The world is changing rapidly but politicians seem to be stuck in some other time and some other world. New approaches are needed not just churning out of the same old lies to win elections.

Steve Clements,

The Legalise Cannabis Alliance,

Church Street, York.

Updated: 09:54 Friday, August 27, 2004