Idiots who endanger everyone

Anyone who would vandalise life-saving equipment or steal things like lifebelts so they can use them as ornaments has to be both stupid and dangerous.

Lifebelts, throw lines and throw bags are normally used only when someone is in difficulty in a body of water. When there's a need for them, it is urgent and immediate.

And if, at the very moment when they are needed, they are not where they are supposed to be, there may be no time to try and find one somewhere else.

That means the idiot thief who takes a lifebelt to hang upon his bathroom wall, like the vandal who cuts a throw line or shreds a throw bag, may actually be condemning someone to death.

This Bank Holiday weekend many thousands of Northerners will be out enjoying themselves, at the beach or with a stroll along a river bank.

With luck, all will be safe. But if things do go wrong and any of them need the aid of a lifebelt, all we can do is pray that the vandals and idiots have not been there first.

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Betrayed over Iraq once again

Britain's soldiers were sent to war in Iraq with the aim of overthrowing a dictator and bringing democracy to people who had never been allowed to enjoy it before.

Never mind the lies about weapons of mass destruction. Today we are asked to believe that the introduction of democracy was always the name of the game.

Saddam went long ago, but last night the country where close on 100 of our soldiers have made the supreme sacrifice, slipped closer to civil war.

The problem this time is a draft constitution which seeks to enshrine Islamic law, give women less rights than men and deny a substantial section of the population the financial support available to everyone else.

Now, as the factions head towards open confrontation in Iraq, here at home even those who gave their support to the war must feel betrayed for this is surely not what they signed up for.

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