A lack of respect

The attempt to set fire to the memorial to Pc Ian Broadhurst, an unarmed officer who was murdered seven years ago, is another sad indictment of the country's moral decline, and is comparable to those so-called students, and anarchists, who defaced memorials to Sir Winston Churchill, and others, during the recent cycle of tuition fee protests.

The damage to Pc Broadhurst's memorial stone is another in a latest line of depressing incidents that have seen students, and others, see fit to urinate on monuments to the war dead.

However there is simply no excuse or justification for such disrespectful behaviour – even if the perpetrators are befuddled by drink, drugs or both – and it is imperative that the police and courts bring down the full force of the law on those responsible, rather than giving them a slapped wrist under this Government's flawed "soft on crime" approach to sentencing.