Both sloth and this zombie parliament have restricted my desire to comment on political matters of late. However, the wonderful interview with the Tory leader of the council recently caught my eye.

In it he suggested his Conservative administration may not be able to fulfil their statutory duties, so we can forget about any discretionary activity. It appears the Tories in Swindon are content with, even encourage, the non-repair of broken pavements and signs, replacing worn markings, let alone litter, and soon it will be grass cutting. With no fat to be trimmed, no more ‘efficiency savings’ and no back room staff to fire, local government will soon disappear. I wish there was a charge of ‘wilful neglect’ that residents could levy at their local council. However, I suppose they are only copying their lords and masters in government.

For most of my working life I have been a public servant and proud to have been. Every month I deferred some of my salary, preferring to put it into a pension pot. Now it is time to draw on this pot I find the trustees (the Tory government) have branded me in receipt of benefits in their letter to taxpayers. At the stroke of a Conservative pen I have transformed from a decent hard-working person into a scrounger. I don’t think they understand how hurtful such things are. I am also in receipt of a state pension, which in April will go up eight times the level of inflation. When working tax credits to ‘hard working families’ are being slashed by the Tories I don’t feel my increase is fair.

One of the Tories’ big ideas is that private and public businesses shouldn’t be in competition, hence the selling off of all public activities that could be done by a firm, no matter how badly or with no accountability.

This is why the Tories are bashing the BBC, as they can’t see any value in it when commercial stations could do the same.

However, when it comes to savings, instead of letting the banks compete with each other for any cash, the Government has introduced their ‘granny bonds’, paying well above an excellent market return. Readers may question who will pay the difference between these two rates of return and end up by pointing the finger at themselves.

Only recently you carried stories about another dispersal order to stop young people being a nuisance and about the inability of the Chief Constable’s men to do their job due to the cuts.

No matter how long the council tax is frozen, or how much my taxes will be reduced in the future I still need to join with others to buy the services to keep our communities enjoyable places to live in, the Tories denying us this right.

Bob Pixton Abney Moor Swindon