REGARDING the 'Opinion' column 'Cameras Never Lie' last week. True, yet the need for CCTV cameras reflects badly on our society.

We came out of the dark ages early last century. As the police, crime detection and a stronger sense of civility improved, we gained comparative sanity.

Come the mid-70s and the 'looney left' began their march. It's been downhill ever since. What had worked for 50-plus years was suddenly barbaric, anti-social -- the biggest laugh was we should not encourage competition in schools. Life is one continuous competitive journey, but, the few got their way.

Now we spend millions of pounds on the symptom and ignore the cure. Yet the do-gooders will still object to the cameras arguing that it will infringe on people's civil rights and liberties. What do they want? Total anarchy? Until we are all born passive, their ideas will never work. There will always be an unruly element in every school, on every estate, and in every walk of life. Something they just do not accept.

Corporal punishment, in general, did one very important thing -- it kept the majority in control and the fringe element on the right path. Today they see no need to behave, as they fear the thug element far more than a toothless law, seeing no need to respect anything or anyone. Parents take much of the blame, rightly, in many situations, yet, when these parents who do care chastise their children, that child can, and often does, report it to the teacher, who then reports the parents to the police and/or social services, often ending up in court. That child knows it can do virtually what it wants as the anti-this-and-that groups will support them.

Amazingly, these people ignore the majority of children who want to learn, preferring to pander to the unruly. Those of us, in the past, who received the cane hated it, yet now see its worth.

Let's ask today's children if they would like more discipline and the cane. They might just surprise everyone.

The question to be asked -- if we continue to treat the symptom by installing CCTV etc, what will we be installing in 10-20 years' time? Just look at our masters, the Americans. They have armed guards in some schools.

How many more smashed windows, cars, houses, gardens etc will the majority put up with? How much more shame will we feel at pictures of 70, 80 and 90-year-old people with battered bodies and faces, knowing we have no deterrent or apparent intention of stopping it all? And they call being caned 'barbaric'!

J Geoff Pollitt

Towers Avenue

Deane

Bolton