Letter: Publicity stunt that punishes our children

NO RATIONAL person, organisation or lobby could stand by without commenting on the dangerous irony of Michael Howard's proposals for incarcerating British children on the eve of the International Year of the Family ('Child criminals may be locked up', 26 September).

Misguided at the very least, this proposal shows how little facts and established research bear on Mr Howard's social policy. Far from seeking to endorse and adopt that United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, the Government seems intent on shaming us all with publicity- seeking simplistic and medieval practices. What next - children back into the chimneys and mines in some post- Victorian brave new world?

Roz Goldie

Belfast