SIR - Peter Alcock wrote (Letters, May 3) that "the people who run our country have brought in all-day drinking in a short space of time".

Licensing laws were introduced in the UK during the First World War to entice munitions workers to return to the factories on time. These laws were hastily amended in 1988 to enable the sale of alcohol between the hours of 11am and 11pm.

The next amendment took place a mere 17 years later when the Act was introduced (in compliance to an EU directive) to allow licensed premises to remain open 24 hours a day, so long as they gain local council approval, which, in the vast majority of cases, is not given.

The amount of time taken therefore to move from unrestricted back to almost unrestricted sale of alcohol is approximately 90 years, perhaps Mr Alcock would like to explain exactly how slow he would like reform to be ?

It will soon become irrelevant how long pubs and clubs are open anyway - the Government has already indicated it is considering moves to introduce smart cards to regulate alcohol consumption. In order to buy a drink in a pub you'll have to present your card to the barman, and when you've had three, four or whatever the limit is set at, you'll be served no more.

The effect of this will clearly be to force drinkers to stay at home with the smokers, thus creating the subservient population the Government craves, everybody sitting at home watching BBC propaganda and rarely venturing out other than for work.

We are rapidly becoming a police state, Orwell only got the year wrong.

Gary Webb, Worcester.