My father has just been denied medication for his cancer due to the high cost of the drug. His G.P. told him our local health authority simply hasn't the money to pay for it. We lost our local hospital accident and emergency department last year due to cutbacks in the budget.

Most of the clothing manufacturers in this area have closed down due to cheap foreign imports. Unemployment figures in the area are at the same level they were in 1978.


Our government gave several million pounds of tax payers money to the "under developed" countries who are producing the cheaper imported clothing which closed down our industry.

The war in Iraq has already cost several billion pounds, on Friday the UK government gave an undertaking to provide 700 million pounds to a regeneration programme over the next two years in Afghanistan.


You ask why are people opting to leave the UK ?

Maybe it's because many like myself feel like second class citizens under a government that should realise charity should begin at home.