IT IS hard not to think that the Government has have been rather slow to treat cable and metal theft as a serious threat.

Once again we have hundreds of people who have lost essential communication services because thieves have stolen about 1km of copper cable from the BT exchange in Steeple Aston.

Yet there seems in some quarters an attitude that it is like any other low-level theft and certainly not as serious as something like burglary.

On Saturday we reported the five-day jail ‘terms’ given to five men for stealing copper cable from Yarnton – sentences that are pointless in every aim apart from giving the green light to other criminals to carry on thieving.

Look at the continuing problems it causes because metal thieves – and let’s be honest, these aren’t opportunistic Steptoe & Son wags but organised criminals exploiting the rise in metal prices – are damaging our community infrastructure.

Yet the only time anyone at a high level seems seriously vexed is when thieves strip a war memorial and politically it looks good to condemn them.

It would be nigh on impossible to fortify every phone exchange, church or school roof, or rail equipment to prevent theft and so the way to deal with this spree is through severe punishments as a deterrent.

Powers and the political backing must be given to courts so the only metal these thieves eye up for a long time are the bars on their cell windows.