I FEEL I must put pen to paper over the disgusting state of our country.

I have always enjoyed reading the papers -- the Bolton Evening News every weekday and Saturday -- but each week the news is becoming harder to bear and I grow more angry as I read on.

My blood began to slowly boil as I read the headlines "Widow, 88, told by GP to make way for asylum seekers". That was the finish of my relaxed Sunday morning. Next thing, Blair could be classed as a war criminal if he goes to war against UN sanctions. I was calming down a bit now.

Then, again, my heart began to beat faster. Police and the security services are involved in a desperate race against time to find a stockpile of deadly toxins smuggled into Britain by terrorists planning a chemical weapons attack.

I am upset again when I read that Tony Martin is still in prison for protecting his own property and should have been let out this week, but for the recommendation of a parole officer. Mr Martin may be a difficult man, and may still live in the 1950s, but, surely, that is no reason for keeping him in prison.

Now I feel afraid; afraid for our children, when I read that Blair will open the gates of hell if we go to war. I heave a deep sigh and feel so helpless. Everything is out of control.

Whatever is going on in the justice system when the mug who violently murdered headmaster Philip Lawrence is expected to be freed after serving only half his sentence and won't be deported? Who are the men who decide all these stupid, maddening rules like the crack addict burglar who, naming and shaming him, breaches his human rights. The very words infuriate me; they encourage criminals without thought for the victims of crime.

Many years ago I was waiting in the bus shelter when three people joined me. I gathered that one of the men, when he was young, had been to Borstal.

I have never forgotten his words. He said he could have faced being locked up but the one thing that he could never, ever, endure again was having the "cat of nine tails", and that he had never strayed from the law again. I never saw those people again.

Estelle Thomas

(Normally a very placid, easy-going, unruffled woman)

Hindley Road

Daisy Hill

Westhoughton