Your correspondent Alan Hill decries the alleged award of damages to the two children who killed James Bulger ('Bulger Killers' Damages Prove Society Is Crazy', December 20).

No such damages exist. The European Court of Human Rights has made an order that, because of failings in the British legal system, the costs of the childrens' legal representation should be met by the Government. The money goes to lawyers not the children.

Despite claims to the contrary, recent history suggests that our legal processes are far from infallible. The number of convictions that have been overturned in the last ten years demonstrates this.

The Bulger trial has been found to be an example of a different failing, and let us hope that the Home Secretary has the courage to recognise that immediately.

We should not criticise the Court of Human Rights for interference, but think of why our reputation for justice is increasingly open to question.

Peter Berry,

Tholthorpe, York.

...I Have to echo Alan Hill's comments. Why does Europe insist on interfering with our justice system? Do other European countries have similar interference? It would be interesting to see. I bet it is just good old Britain though.

Dave Chambers,

Hambleton Terrace,

Haxby Road, York.

...Is there now any doubt as to who runs our country? The European Court overrules our laws. From January 1 if you sell goods in pounds and ounces you could be sent to jail.

European commissioners in Brussels agree to ruin up to 50 per cent of the few fishermen they had left us with and the Labour Party, Conservatives and Liberal Democrats cannot do anything about it and even go along with it.

Is this what we, the people of the United Kingdom, really want?

Stephen Feaster,

Chairman, Ryedale Branch

UK Independence Party,

Cropton,

Pickering.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.