The world's going mad

Why is Wiltshire Council cofunding an anti-smoking campaign that includes costly TV ads at the same time as it cuts funding for just about every disabled member of our community?

Please don’t tell me the money comes from a separate ring-fenced budget.

That’s the usual justification for official lunacy.

If it does, then there’s no excuse for such a state of affairs in these straitened times, and it’s up to those who enjoy bossing us all about to sort it out.

Everyone knows that smoking’s bad for them, for goodness sake.

Even a hermit in a Himalayan monastery could scarcely have failed to pick up the hint over the last 40 years.

If addicts choose to carry on and risk their health (and I speak as a reformed smoker who only quit after many failed attempts), then why should our public servants spend our hard-earned taxes trying to stop them?

In an ideal world, it might be nice to try.

But not while there are people suffering frightening upheaval in lives that are already dauntingly difficult through no fault of their own.

I speak, of course, of those who will suffer through the cuts to facilities such as the Douglas Arter Centre, Hillcote respite care centre, the Bridging Project and the John McNeill Opportunity Centre.

Another question. Why has our Police Commissioner, Angus Macpherson, launched a survey of 2,000 Wiltshire residents to find out what we want from our police force?

OK, we know the answer to that one. The law says he has to do it.

Mr Macpherson says the information will help him to “commission services from Wiltshire Police” and will help senior police officers “to understand the needs and priorities of the people they protect”.

Oh really? What if the most common responses to the survey are along the lines of “We don’t need money wasted on a commissioner” or “We want our police station back”?

One final question. If Sainsbury’s bosses are so desperate to build their unwanted Southampton Road supermarket that they’re ready to dig an extra hole big enough to hold five-anda- half Olympic swimming pools’ worth of floodwater, have they considered inviting Mark Spitz to perform the opening ceremony?

anneriddle36@gmail.com

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