Home Office Minister Charles Clarke ignored the pleas of the Tooley family for motorists who cause death by dangerous driving to be given longer sentences.

But Veronica Tooley, mother of PC Jeff Tooley, who was killed by a hit-and-run driver in Shoreham last year, does not intend to let the matter drop.

The Government's consultation paper on motoring offences said raising the maximum sentence from ten years would be an empty gesture.

Now Mrs Tooley intends to compile a book, which she will send to the Minister. It will not make comfortable reading.

The book will be a thick volume. It will tell horrifying tales of how lives have been ended and those of their friends and families ruined.

It will also reveal that in most cases where drivers have been charged, the sentences have been rather lenient compared with the gravity of the offence.

When Mr Clarke eventually reads the book, he will have to acknowledge the sincerity of the case being made by Mrs Tooley and many others.

Let's hope he and his Home Office colleagues then realise increasing the maximum sentence should be essential law rather than an empty gesture.