What happened to manufacturing goods here in Britain?

HOLME-ON-SPALDING-MOOR is blessed with an outstanding team of doctors and nurses, and an adjoining pharmacy with pleasant, helpful staff.

I am so fit at 85½ that my GP referred me to Pocklington Sports Centre for sessions at the gym. I went in April and May and found it useful for balance, muscles and joints; however the drive there and back was very stressful with road closures, and I began to wilt. A trainer took my blood pressure and it had risen alarmingly, so I stopped going at the end of May. I attended my surgery for help, and was put on a list for a 24-hour belt that would check what was actually happening with my blood pressure. The doctor said it would be a month before I could get this device as there was only one for this area.

Over the next months I felt increasingly unwell, and was visited by a doctor in late August. He sent a nurse to take blood samples, and I asked for a blood pressure check; it was still very high, so the doctor visited again. He prescribed a low dose beta blocker, so I asked, “What about the 24-hour belt?”

He looked sheepish and confessed: “It has gone to Hungary to be mended.”

I thought it was one of his jokes, but no – so we had a good laugh about it. I asked him if I could share this with you and he agreed. The more I ponder over this the more I wonder what our workers do all day. Are they only engaged in service industries? When I discovered my cat litter was made in Spain I switched to a brand from Scunthorpe. This week a bra came from “Ample Bosoms”, which was made in India. Are we now incapable of making brassieres? How on earth did we win two world wars? What if there’s another? Keep calm and carry on.

From: TW Coxon, West Auckland Road, Darlington.

IT is said that Nero fiddled whilst Rome was burning. It appears that our politicians have adopted a similar attitude, when one looks at the state of the UK.

It is not surprising when 
you watch the mad scramble 
of would-be immigrants in Calais, the overcrowding of schools and the scandals in Birmingham, hospitals unable to cope with the number of patients, police advising of their inability to keep us safe from terrorist attacks, also the Rotherham shocker.

This coalition Government, in my opinion, is a useless, ineffective, not fit for purpose forum for back-stabbing and constant public argument of 
so-called ministers of state.