THE report calling for more respect for our Armed Forces (LT, September 26) is commendable but regrettably, would not have been necessary half a century ago, when all three services were highly esteemed and when the public was acquainted with the notion of the Citizen Army' through conscription.

Whatever people's views of the Iraq war, they can't escape the fact that Tony Blair was only too keen to boost his pose as a world statesman by sending our armed forces into the Middle East, with the full support of Gordon Brown and a Government that fails to fulfil its part of the military covenant which was to support the troops, through thick and thin.

Although, since the campaigns began in Iraq and Afghanistan, senior officers have complained of overstretch' - this is shorthand for our forces having to do jobs overseas while leaving insufficient reserves to maintain security of the realm.

In addition, the Territorial Army was reduced by 18,000 people under a Strategic Defence Review even though reserve forces are highly cost-effective yet the troops who face hardship and risk their lives in service of their country, according to Lt Col Gary Deakin are outlandishly, mocked and abused by morons who prefer to idolise Premiership footballers.

The moronic malaise probably had its origins in the 1960s but now, is manifest in our broken society to the extent, that paramedics and firemen are actually molested by yobos' when answering emergency calls.

But the Government seems to be in denial about the realities of vandalism and violent crime and the urgent need for an effective deterrent.

Now there are almost as many people in British prisons - 81,135 - as in the British Army.

COUNCILLOR J H HIRST, Beardwood with Lammack Ward.