Published figures inform me there are about 100 billionaires resident in the UK. They constitute 0.0002 per cent of our population.

Their combined wealth is £300,000,000,000 (£300 billion). To give this figure some perspective, it would meet our entire NHS and social services budgets for two and a half years.

With about 200 countries in the world, it’s reasonable to assume that a mere 20,000 people control some £60 trillion of the world’s wealth.

This is equivalent to six times the GDP of the US.

We don’t need to search the universe for black holes – we’re fast disappearing into one of our own making.

It is sucking the lifeblood from the globe like a cancer.

The fiction of the book 1984 by George Orwell will become the reality of 2084 if we don’t exercise our democratic rights while we still can.

Global warming may become just a distraction from the general mayhem. The owners of this excellent newspaper, like most of the other media, may eventually be made offers they cannot refuse and combine to become the Newspeak of Big Brother.

I hope not, because then there will be nobody we can trust.

Am I turning from being a moderate liberal into a raving Socialist? Only time will tell but the Tories’ view of life does seem rather unrealistic to say the least.

Mike Joslin, Garfield Avenue,  Dorchester