Unwelcome in our own land
I was upset by Mrs Bourne's letter (September 6) in which she described how she had taken someone who was bleeding badly to hospital and, finding nowhere to park, used a "residents only" space and was given a parking ticket.
It is not the cost which is so upsetting, nor the pettiness of the official, but it is the feeling that it is just one more thing which would not have happened a few years ago. Firstly, there would have been more parking spaces at the hospital and, secondly, the parking attendant would not have pursued his duties so assiduously.
It is not the big things that upset people but the small things that grind you down day after day. People are leaving in droves from this country not because of our involvement in Iraq or the very high cost of living but because of the feeling that we are no longer welcome in our own land. Good, honest, decent working people who are the backbone of this nation are despised and abused by the very officials who are paid to make their lives better.
In the doctor's surgery recently, a man was complaining about the lack of attention from the receptionist to us waiting in a queue. When I pointed out to him, with a smile, that it was my job to complain. He said: "Yes, but we remember when it was done properly, don't we." How right he was.
Peter Lawson, Meadowsweet Way, Kingswinford.
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