Mr Heath's striptease
Sir: Why does Mr Kennard think that the 'idea that Conservatives are more efficient dispensers of justice than Labour is non- sense' (Letters, 21 February), and why does this invalidate the shadow cabinet's appeal to law and order?
I could, of course, step across the quad and ask him—you will allow me to boast that he is a personal friend of mine—but I prefer publicly to remark that to dispense justice and to maintain law and order (so far as the two functions are separable) is the first duty of government. The Conservatives may not do it more efficiently than Labour, but they are certainly obliged to try.
It is very easy for us, safe in the only remaining civilised and liberal university of Europe, to equate 'law and order' with totali- tarian repression. The point is less clear to those whose lives, property, recreation, health and livelihood are threatened by a vandalism increasingly contemptuous both of its victims and their powers of defence. Peter Croft Christ Church, Oxford
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