FAR too often the law seems to be a slow process. The long gap between a crime and the consequent punishment can seem like an age.

One effect of such tardy justice is that the victims of crime are made to feel that justice isn't being done. As the victims wait for a case to come to court, their lives are often put on hold while justice grinds on.

This is an unfair and tortuous form of punishment for those who are innocent of any crime.

This long interval can also divorce the punishment from the crime, for if a court case is too much delayed it is common, in the public mind, to believe that justice simply isn't being done.

So in the light of such disquiet over the jamming up of justice, how refreshing it is to report that young offenders in North Yorkshire are dealt with more quickly than their counterparts elsewhere in England and Wales.

This fast-track treatment is thanks to a joint approach from police, prosecutors, courts and those who work with young offenders.

Such a farsighted example of collaboration is to be praised, for too often the different parts of the criminal justice system do not appear to be co-operating as fully as they might.

Swift justice is justice that is seen to be working, and it is to be hoped that such speedy work will get the message across to young offenders, and force them to think again before committing a crime.

...faster Internet

FROM speedy justice to fast-track technology. York's reputation as a city at the forefront of the quick-changing hi-tech world is further cemented today with exciting news about the Internet.

York is to be one of the first cities in Britain to benefit from ADSL technology that will provide super-fast links to the Internet, allowing users to down-load information much more quickly.

As slow access is one of the curses of this brave new technological world, it is great news that Internet-users in York will soon be able to accelerate along the information super high-way.

...faster trains

AND even the trains are getting quicker. Speedier links between York and Manchester can only be good news for our city.

For Manchester, with its shops and its gate-way airport, will be brought nearer to us - while in turn York is consequently closer for tourists who fly into Manchester and, quite understandably, look for the quickest way to York and Yorkshire.