I Would like to ask Bryan Marlowe exactly whom he expects to see looking after security in banks, shops, factories etc (Evening Press, May 4)?

Does he think the employers of today are so generous as to employ people as a kind of philanthropic gesture or that the criminal fraternity are such jolly nice people just desperate for a holiday they should be encouraged to go for it?

I am sure that as a responsible citizen, writing in a respected newspaper, Mr Marlowe has researched his subject thoroughly. He must, for example, have visited all the premises mentioned, including a wide selection of HM Prisons, where no doubt he met convicted murderers, rapists, drug dealers and armed robbers who were transformed overnight into the kind of people who could be imprisoned with total safety in a holiday camp.

If, perchance, Mr Marlowe did not research his subject I respectfully suggest he offers an apology to all prison officers and security personnel for denigrating their role in such an ignorant manner.

By the way, Mr Marlowe, regarding the store security people, I find they respond to a smile and a polite hello the same as anyone else, although, the sight of you walking around with goods held aloft ought to have them in hysterics!

Thea Murliss,

Larch Way,

Haxby.

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