I fear most law-abiding people will not be alarmed by proposals to remove trial by jury for some offences.

But 12 minds in judgement are better than one which may be overtired or in ill-health.

For many people just a single mistaken conviction can spell the end of a career.

It is an old political trick to use the wrongdoings of a few (in this case those who plead guilty when at Crown Court) as an excuse to deprive the majority of a part of their liberty.

The Government's alleged remedy, that appellants can appeal to a High Court, judge merely creates a different bottle-neck.

It is pertinent here to cite another case of "the trick" being used to threaten our liberty. Because fraud in the EU is so rife the European parliament has passed a resolution in favour of establishing Corpus Juris, a system hostile to the Anglo-Saxon concept of justice.

Lastly, we cannot relax in the knowledge that Parliament - in the words of Lord Hailsham, "the traditional protector of our liberties" - will do its job, because candidates for parliament, by taking the party whip to improve their chances of a ticket into the Commons, sacrifice their independence, and for career prospects, become appendages of government.

It is by voting for any party government (and giving it such a large majority - 170 in Labour's case) rather than voting for a free and independent parliament, we thus empower government to erode our liberty and become our own executioners.

Martin Cruttwell,

Campaign To Restore The Constitution,

Hamilton House,

Scrayingham,

York.

Full marks to newspapers for exposing this Government's long-developing plan to end trial by jury and Habeas Corpus. But what many papers do not point out is that in obedience to their new masters in Brussels; it's really to "harmonise" Britain's justice system with that of Europe, in advance of having to do it later this year, publicly, under the provisions of the Treaty of Amsterdam, where Britain's veto is removed.

There is a fully-developed European document, called Corpus Juris, describing exactly what Brussels intends; I have one, and I know the whereabouts of dozens of others.

It was voted through by the European Parliament on April 13. Not one Conservative Euro-MP opposed it - apparently, the group "made a mistake"!

In that scenario, Tony Blair and Jack Straw know they would be sharply opposed, and their whole "European Project" blown apart in public; that's why they are doing it now, and pretending it's to "save money".

Citizens of European countries have never had the basic legal rights that British people have had, substantially unaltered, since Magna Carta in 1215; the English idea of jury trial is even older than this.

These rights are the most important limitation on the power of states to tyrannise and the British will wake up to feel their loss greatly, if this repellent proposal is allowed to go through.

David Davis,

Tregarvon Road,

Battersea,

London SW11.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.