Rich don’t care about the many

Sir, - I recently noticed a couple of letters side by side in The Courier, one critical of the NHS, one of our education system.

These are subjects which, unsurprisingly, appear on these correspondence pages very regularly.

Clearly there are problems in both of these services, the reasons for which are many – and difficult to resolve.

But one reason which doesn’t come up often is that the rich and powerful in our country don’t really care and don’t have a personal investment because they don’t use these services.

They have a parallel system of private healthcare, and private schools, which insulates them from the effects of underfunding or staff shortages and ensures that they don’t have to suffer long waiting lists in the NHS, or lack of resources in their education.

If young Prince George had to attend his local state primary school, and comprehensive thereafter, and Prince Philip his local GP practice, or NHS hospital, I suspect that there might be more attention paid to the reasons for poor standards, and more effort to improve matters.

Les Mackay. 5 Carmichael Gardens, Dundee.