WHAT an absolute load of hyped-up rubbish being bandied about in the media over Prince's Charles and Harry's so-called racial insults.

By contrast I walked into my local shop this morning, which is run by an Asian gentleman, and he is just that; a gentleman. He greeted me "hello Sooty", to which I rejoined "hello Chalkie". At which we both laughed, and agreed how the whole thing was total nonsense, and did absolutely nothing for race relations. There are far more important issues in the world to worry about, we agreed.

I would suggest that the race laws are amended so that anyone offending is brought to court and required to publicly apologise and to meet all court costs and expenses. There should be no question of any outrageous damages being awarded, injured pride is just that; it is not physical damage.

I think you would see a rapid decline in this sort of case, and it would certainly put a stop to the unscrupulous manipulation of the system by those who are in it for pecuniary advantage.

The same, I think, could be said of the Sex Discrimination Act, and the Human Rights Act. We are over burdened by all of this mostly useless legislation, commonsense seems to have gone totally out of the window.

MR D R SMITH, Bitterne, Southampton