PHILIP Pearce-Smith (In My View, August 27) told the whole sorry story our ministers have put this country in. I feel this is no longer a democracy but a dictatorship in kind.

We are told we are a rich nation - although I am amazed because all our publicly owned assets are almost sold off now, including the NHS.

So why are we constantly threatened by Big Brother's tactic of wanting more money from us, a form of highway robbery? Is there something nasty in the woodshed and we are not told of the straights we are really in and all the rich pickings are no longer in this country?

Most of us know life is not a bed of roses - we expect to work to feed our families, so why is it employees are being laid off and employers are engaging agency staff? After all they, the employers, do not have to give commitment and loyalty to temporary staff and more money is put in investors' pockets.

Let us observe privatisation: vital services, at times, appear to have improved, transport is made cleaner, new buses and trains stock are brought in - this keeps us sweet, but then the real business of making money raises its ugly head - services are cut back, fares increased, almost beyond the working man's purse - we are being blackmailed 'pay up r you do not get to work' and chaos reigns. More cars on the road, emissions, gosh! Our ministers are cleaver!!

The same with domestic services: electricity, gas, water and now waste bins, and the bill goes up and up and many are struggling. Now the squeenze on global warming.

I am sure that most of us would pull our belts in if it helped our country, but I wonder where all this money has gone? Investors have fingers in the pie throughout the world. We are rich pickings but we will eventually see the cracks in the barrel.

Have you heard all this before? Then do something about it.

J C MOORBY (by e-mail).