SIR: Tom Sackville has at last blurted out an awkward truth - a truth which Home Secretary Michael Howard has wilfully tried to deny - crime is linked to unemployment. He admitted that the "dreadful mistakes' made in running the economy led to higher unemployment and helped push up crime.

Although we cannot excuse crime, we must try to tackle it where and how it breeds. Given the three-fold rise in unemployment from one million in 1979 to three million in 1992, is it surprising that recorded crime doubled? And that it has risen further since then? According to the latest statistics, nearly one in three young men have been found guilty of a serious offence by the age of 22.

We must be tough on crime and on the causes of crime. That means taking action in five key areas: youth unemployment and training, truancy and school exclusion, parenting, drug misuse and youth services.

Ending youth unemployment must be a national priority. A Labour Government would use a one-off levy on the excess profits of privatised utilities to ensure that everyone under 25 who is out of work for more than six months is offered the choice of one of four options: a job in the private sector, work in the voluntary sector, full-time education, or a place on Labour's environmental taskforce.

Now that Tom Sackville has spilled the beans, isn't it time that the Government sat up and listened?

Ruth Kelly, Heaton Road, Lostock, Bolton.

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