Dear Dr Reid,

It is with some satisfaction that I note your recent proposal to remove the right of prisoners in UK custody, from protection from torture. Since the US Senate ratified a bill to permit the torture of suspects held without trial or right of appeal, it was always inevitable that the archaic British Laws which prevent the extradition of prisoners to countries which practice torture would have to be updated. Otherwise how could we continue to extradite our bankers to the USA?

I do feel however that the proposals as reported in the Sunday Times do not go far enough in my view. If we have made the leap to allow other countries to torture our prisoners, why should we not torture them ourselves, obviously using your very careful criteria of applying torture in cases of “overriding considerations of national security”?

Why also should we stop with terrorist suspects. If we are prepared to see suspected terrorist prisoners tortured, we should also be prepared to torture those who have actually been convicted of terrorists acts or intentions. In the event, why do not we not propose a law which would allow our security services to torture domestic prisoners or suspects, for example those convicted or suspected of pedophilia or kidnapping or rape? If my daughter was raped, I would certainly wish to see the person suspected of it tortured terribly.

Given how soft New Labour has been on the issue of Crime and Law and Order, I believe that a program of domestic torture for suspected and convicted criminals would be a real vote winner in the forthcoming general election. I am still unsure whether I will vote BNP or New Labour, but a domestic torture program like they now have in the USA would help convince me that a Labour government could be as cruel and vicious as the Daily Mail demands in order to defeat crime.

Yours sincerely

AJ Bladderwait.