Dear Raver: Sleepless in a small village, an exasperated mother feels the liberalism drain out of her as ravers keep her up all night

Caught up on your sleep yet? I haven't - but then most people who have to go to work or look after young children, or both, don't take Ecstasy to keep going and they certainly can't sleep through the day.

You see, we were camping out in a tent in the back garden of our home in our sleepy village the other Saturday night when you lot started in a quarry across the fields.

It was supposed to be a treat for our little boy at the start of the school holidays. But then you have to have your fun, too, don't you?

So we went inside and closed the double-glazed windows and put pillows over our heads. But as it got light and the dawn chorus lost out to the repetitive beat, I was still awake so I thought I might ring the police.

I know I'm a party pooper, but I'm not alone. The policeman at headquarters had taken several hundred calls - but he couldn't offer much help. Blow me if there weren't 2,500 of you funsters and only three officers on duty. Yes, you were trespassing on private property; yes, you were disturbing the peace, but we just had to wait until you finished - which you did just in time for breakfast.

During the day I discovered from friends at the end of the village nearest you, that we had got off lightly. One mother of four described how she was sitting in her living-room in the middle of the night with her head in her hands when her seven-year-old came in and asked where the loud music was coming from. This was the final straw. She jumped into her car and drove to the entrance of the quarry to ask some of you whether it would not be better to give the money you had spent to the Rwandan appeal.

On the TV news the day after I watched the demo in Trafalgar Square against the Criminal Justice Bill and the demonstrators trying to pull down the gates to Downing Street. Were you there? I understand lots of you don't like the Bill because it would allow the police to turn back cars full of young people heading for raves.

I used to consider myself liberal, I used to think Michael Howard could do no right. I had some reservations about the Bill, but I have none now about the parts dealing with you lot. You whinge about it affecting your civil liberties. Well what about mine? What about the civil liberties of all those people whose sleep you wrecked?

No right-minded person is against others having fun as long as it doesn't harm anyone. If you want to dance the night away with your mates, do it in a sound-proofed warehouse that has been legally hired from the owners. Not in the open air with a rock-concert sound system on peoples' doorsteps. It's just a tad inconsiderate.

A party pooper

(Photograph omitted)