No benefits unless you swear an oath of non-aggression

Letters

Nobody whether native or foreign should receive any benefits from the British state unless they swear an oath on whatever they believe in - Bible, Koran, whatever - that they will not perpetrate or incite others to perpetrate violence against the people of this country, or against any fixture or entity belonging to this country, whether at home or abroad, if such violence entails injury to people of any nationality in the vicinity of such entity.

This oath should be applied retrospectively to such people living on benefits as the various poisonous so-called sheikhs who condone such attacks, so that they publicly swear on the Koran to denounce, and renounce the attackers, and to support the right of people in this country to freedom from such attacks. The penalty for failure to take the oath should be removal of all state benefits, public housing and in the case of foreign nationals, deportation to their own country, any other country willing to take them, or failing all else, Antartica.*

Taxpayer, Willesden
(Name and address supplied)

*Exile to Antartica doesn't sound very practical. Why don't we give them a rowing boat each, a pair of oars, a bucket and a fishing rod, and set them adrift in international waters? That seems fair. Ed