Pussy Riot and absurdity in the UK

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2012/aug/19/pussy-riot-absurdity-in-uk

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The Pussy Riot verdict provides our celebrities with a Spartacus moment: surely it won't be long before Paul McCartney and Stephen Fry storm the altar in St Paul's and sing "Shit, shit, the Lord is shit" (Guilty verdict 'written by Putin' fires up his opponents, 18 August)?

It would be a win-win scenario: either the British media and government would applaud their bravery, or there would be an "international outcry" if Britain's own absurd legislation against religious offence were to be invoked.

I'm confident that Paul and Stephen could also come up with a gender-appropriate version of "I'm Pussy Riot". Peter McKenna Liverpool

• Regimes have always handed down stiff prison sentences in respect of crimes they consider especially threatening – hence two years for Pussy Riot for exercising free speech. And let's not forget the UK examples of six months for stealing a bottle of water andfour years each for Facebook attempts to incite mayhem (at which no one turned up except the police) in the summer riots of 2011. Andrew Dobson Keele

• So Pussy Riot get two years for singing a song disapproved by the authorities in a church. In Scotland recently, the SNP regime passed a law allowing for five years imprisonment for singing a traditional song disapproved by the authorities at a football match. So two years is really lenient. John Royle Inverness