Letter: Social disorder

Serious breakdowns in social order, for instance like that between travellers and settled communities, raise issues about the state (your report, 17 September).

The sine qua non of the state is to claim successfully the sole use of force to maintain social order by the rule of law. Hence enforcement is the key to the role of the state. However, for political reasons it seems in this case that agencies of the state couldn't do this. Why in dealing with travellers is there a "general presumption against prosecution" for breaches of private property rights?

Isn't it a sign of a weak state when the law cannot be enforced for everyone, openly and fairly?

There is a danger for social order if we confuse decreasing the scope of the state, for instance in regulating the economy, with reducing its strength to maintain order.

ELLIS THORPE

Old Chapel Walk

Inverurie, Aberdeenshire