MIKE Bentley may not be able to tell a fish from a mammal but he has certainly highlighted, with painful clarity, the totally farcical state of the nation due to the over-enthusiastic efforts towards political correctness which call into question any vestige of common sense in today's society (February 11).

I would like to add one more incident which shows just how far we have strayed towards making a complete nonsense of our laws, this time governing sexual criminality. I refer. of course. to the story of the woman who, because she was drunk and therefore out of her normal mind, committed the apparently heinous crime of kissing a 14-year-old-boy (Cost Of A Kiss, February 10).

Now that surely was something to feel embarrassed and ashamed about, but to be placed on the Sex Offenders' Register? If that isn't the latest and craziest example of a law gone mad, what is?

With sex being the be-all and end-all of selling, and explicit sexual activities thrown at us from every medium, why is it that a kiss is considered beyond the pale and a valid reason for landing anyone on a list which should be for people who really could be considered dangerous?

Apparently, Kerry Husband also faced a possible charge of "sexually touching" the lad. In the normal course of events, the lad may well have bragged to his mates about this, but no, in our ever-aware condemnation of anything that suggests sex, even in the most obscure and harmless way, the whole woeful event had to be complained about and probably blown up out of all proportion.

Heather Causnett,

Escrick Park Gardens,

Escrick, York.

Updated: 11:04 Tuesday, February 14, 2006