SIR - Those who engage with such trivia may recall that blatant partiality in the sentencing of offending police officers is an occasionally recurrent theme of my correspondence, and while I have no desire to labour the point, two incidents simultaneously reported last week in the national press could hardly vindicate my viewpoint more succinctly.

At Blackburn Magistrates' Court, Mr Kevin Starkey was banned from driving for six months after his conviction for "using a motorised skateboard at 20mph", while at Ludlow Magistrates' Court on the very same day serving police officer Mark Milton was given an absolute discharge by Judge Wallis after driving on public roads at 159 mph.

If this is the law, then, (with abject apologies to Charles Dickens), "the law is an ass!"

Bryan Owram, Main Street, Esholt