Letter: A real headache

Sir: What do all of the following people have in common? The nuclear scientist who is licensed to handle plutonium, the magistrate who decides how best to protect us from local criminals, the 747 pilot who takes us safely across the oceans, the lollypop lady who sees our children safely to school, the hospital physicist who calibrates the sources for radiotherapy and the juror who stands in judgment over his peers.

Answer: They cannot be trusted to buy a bottle of paracetamol.

I am allowed to buy alcohol and cigarettes in unlimited quantities. I am trusted to drive a powerful car through crowded urban streets. I can buy fireworks and explode them in my back garden but I can no longer buy 100 paracetamol in a bottle with a child-proof cap. Instead I am forced to buy them in small, expensive, invitingly coloured, easy-to-open cardboard cartons.

I for one will vote for any party that will restore my freedom and responsibility.

S ANTCZAK

PhD Chemist

Oxted, Surrey