ALTHOUGH far from ideal, the proposal from David Cameron that those in certain official (and other?) positions should be severely prosecuted for failing to report child abuse could be the lesser evil, at least for the present.

All the professions or pseudoprofessions concerned, though, contain some rather stupid, cowardly and malicious individuals.

Some will err idiotically on the side of caution, reporting the slightest of suspicions, some will find that the threat of criminal charges adds a possibly intolerable dimension to their genuine dilemma and, worst of all, this will afford a pretext to others for purely vexatious complaints.

Much of this will not be easily proven, it will stretch the resources of the possibly still mentally and morally incompetent police, etc and our old friend “political correctness” will presumably continue to rear its ugly head.

If anything, although I myself would harbour certain reservations about such policies, it could be mooted that a new offence of racially aggravated child abuse should be introduced, as it is clear that many of the characters currently in the news over the Bullfinch cases and a grooming gang in Banbury, holding white females in even greater contempt than their own, deliberately target the former.

Not entirely inrelevantly, contemplating all the really serious crimes against people which go unprosecuted, I wonder which makes me sicker – someone attempting to sallow a live goldfish or the totally disproportionate punishment (apart from being banned from keeping fish for a mere five years) meted out to the “extremely intoxicated” Luke Berry (March 3) for distressing this most sentient creatures, in marked contrast to fishermen, for example.

His subsequently posting the exploit on Facebook, whatever precisely that means, presumably constitutes aggravating circumstances, though maybe saying more about it than him.

Will the “negative influences” who “egged him on” be charged with aiding and abetting this most felonious act, incidentally?

DAVID DIMENT Riverside Court Oxford