United in our despair

Christopher Merrien Royal Close, Chichester

This New Year is not like other recent New Years. Hitherto we have realised we are a deeply divided society. This year we are united – we are united in despair. Is anything anywhere going right?

Younger families can’t afford to buy a house and now are struggling with record rents. We have been profligate with scarce land and finish up with soulless suburbs around our great little city.

Public sector pay restraint for the last 13 years, now in the face of high inflation, has led to strikes as well as a shortage of staff in the NHS and education and a huge backlog of operations.

We read of long delays in the courts of justice and a collapse of the prison system and we simply can’t understand the delays in assessing asylum claims.

The care system is on its knees and where we used to have young Romanians coming for a limited period of time to learn the language we now have workers from the other side of the world bringing their families with them. Immigration is at record levels when Brexit was supposed to cut back the numbers.

Overall, the UK economy, hobbled by Brexit, is flirting with recession. Government borrowing is way above usual levels and, worryingly, so is household debt.

The polls show most of us think Brexit was a bad mistake, but we are stuck with it.

Despite this appalling state of affairs there is one political party promising tax cuts.

How can this be when they claim there is no money for essential services?

Only those who are relatively well-off are requested to pay income tax; taxes are the price of a civilised society.