IN these enlightened times there is really no reason why we should expect our GPs to be 'on call' at all hours as Mr White infers (EA, Jan 20).

They need their sleep and leisure time like anyone else. Furthermore, better unsocial hours patient care is surely likely when provided by dedicated night shift doctors instead of GPs dragged back out of bed after a day of surgeries and home visits?

Education falling apart? Sorry! Andrew Fleet won't agree (EA, Jan 21) and neither do I. We have more schools, more teachers and smaller class sizes. Our 14 year olds have now overtaken the American, French and German counterparts in numeracy and literacy.

Savage increase in crime in town? Chief Supt Andrew Tatum doesn't agree, although he recognises there is a problem with yobs, (EA, Jan 21). Curiously most of the yobs in court are of an age that makes them children of the Thatcher era.

Finally, the question of the state pension. No government has ever set aside a fund or pension pot for future generations, so all state pensions are wholly dependent on the contributions of those still in work, plus a government with sufficient bottle to collect the money through taxation. I can't see that coming from a party that gave us over three million unemployed in the 1990s and now seems totally fixated on tax cuts.

DON REEVE

Okus Road