SIR - I am amazed and depressed by John Hinton's complacency in regard to council tax defaultors treating court orders with contempt, and getting away with it, their debts written off (Letters, September 12).

Maybe we should all try it on?

The trouble is, if we did our society would inevitably collapse around us. However, it would seem that there is one set of "norms" for the young and another for the elderly.

Young people, however outrageously they behave, must be treated with the softest velvet gloves, while the old are subjected to harsh treatment.

It is the same with every facet of life in England, (Scotland, Wales and the six counties are different and will soon be independent sovereign states).

Now the county council is actually in the process of possibly denying food to a lot of elderly folk.

I realise the county has to deal with a situation created by central government's parsimony towards this area, but I am sure alternative action could have been taken.

However, during the period 1939-45, people, then young, were "used" relentlessly, as this correspondent is well aware.

Now these people are old they are regarded as if they were expendable trash!

D E MARGRETT, Worcester.