IN TURNING the pages of the Echo we discover Oliver Letwin MP making excuses for the near disappearance of some bus routes in rural Dorset. Elsewhere we learn that a senior officer of the County Social Services Department has admitted that there are simply not the financial resources to support many vulnerable children at risk.

This is a disgrace in a civilised society.

These things are not accidental but part of a deliberate Government policy to destroy the fabric of public service in our country. Meanwhile, as Oliver Letwin and Richard Drax MP know full well, the Conservative government is cutting taxes for the richest members of society.

And now junior hospital doctors are being forced into a campaign of strikes against excessive hours of work and further privatisation.

While not a member of the medical profession myself, I was recently admitted as a patient to the A&E department of the Dorset County Hospital where I observed their work. The pressure under which they can be put is appalling, and the threat that they might have to work eighteen hour shifts not only deeply unjust to them but dangerous for patients.

The junior hospital doctors are seeking not only to defend their own interests, but those of all of us. They deserve our support.

Dr Alan Chedzoy Spa Road Weymouth