GUEST,999 I apologize, that my earlier response to your comment was found to be offensive.

In my day (before most of you were born) the local police sergeant was judge, jailer and executioner. I recall two friends of mine over from Ireland, leaving the local pub one night, they sang "Moonlight in Mayo" to a local girl. One got a clip around the ear from Sergeant Winstanley and told in no uncertain terms that people were asleep and to go quietly on his way.

This was long before, Civil Liberty groups accompanied the police to observe their handling of late night revellers. I am sure many of you have seen the programmes about police having to deal with drunks coming out of night clubs. Drunk or not, they seem to know just how far they can push the law.

I can never understand those magistrate court cases in the local papers about someone charged with criminal damage to property or actual bodily harm and the excuse of being simple drunk is accepted and they seem to receive a lesser sentence.

Some years back, a local man was knocked down and killed by a drunk driver. The driver of the car was that drunk he couldn't even recall the incident and arrested whilst still behind the steering wheel of the car. He got a three year sentence in prison and was out in 18 months, most of the sentence was actually spent living with some religious order doing routine maintenance and gardening around their premises and occasionally visited by the prison authorities. I called it murder.