As a certain lady said of Bill Clinton, "You'd think the boy would learn".

A few months ago, Ofsted reported unfavourably on Swindon's education department. Council leaders responded by defending themselves and their department. Nobody offered to resign, and they asked us to trust them to do better.

Fat chance! Why couldn't they see that, judged as having failed, they'd be about the last people to be trusted to put things right? The end result? Resignations, probably more than needed originally, a council taken over by a minority group, and now the probability of the department being run by an outside agency no surprise, one might say.

Now it seems to be happening all over again. A report is critical of Social Services, condemning, as you say, councillors and senior officers, and what do we get? Knee-jerk criticism of the report, and an attack describing it as "ludicrous".

Well, there was a similar report on Wiltshire Social Services last year. In my capacity as a Primary Care Group Chair, I've had input into both it and Swindon's Joint Review, and as a result I can say that the reviewers are no fools.

As for the money, the council knew the size of the Government's shortfall, but still chose to set council tax lower than it might have done a situation which, in an astonishing reversal of roles, the Conservatives look set to rectify.

Blame lack of Government funding by all means but let us be clear where the responsibility lies for running local services.

Meanwhile, dozens of patients sit in PMH, crippling its ability to admit others in need, because places in the community cannot be found and the vast majority of those are from Swindon, not Wiltshire.

Where are our priorities?

Dr C N Barry

Cornerstone Practice, Chiseldon