Dear Editor, I refer to the excellent letter from Mr A.R.Fitzpatrick published last week.

The letter highlighted how so many people are feeling at present and how concerned we are for the future of our country.

I agree with Mr Fitzpatrick’s observations regarding our Prime Minister and would like to add a few of my own to the debate on his suitability for this great office.

Mr Brown has never driven a car so has no idea what the 65 per cent fuel tax means to the man in the street. He has never had children in school so has no knowledge of the average family’s struggles to get a decent education for their children.

He has no concerns about his old age as he has a very substantial pension to come his way despite personally ripping the heart out of the pension system for the rest of the population.

I am fairly certain that he is a non-smoker, so he cares not a jot for the huge taxes imposed on those who are ill-advised enough to be smokers, and by his joyless countenance he surely can never enjoy a few drinks in one of our fast-disappearing pubs. He won’t need private health care as he and his family would be top priority for the NHS in the event of being injured or taken ill.

The Prime Minister has no idea of the realities of life in today’s United Kingdom (soon destined to be the disUnited Kingdom it would appear) because he has no personal knowledge of life as most people live it.

Unfortunately Mr Brown is now seen as a figure of fun around the world. Europeans have poked fun at George Bush for years but can we imagine the reaction of Americans to seeing our P.M on their televisions?

Lacking charm, style, warmth, humility and charisma, he is strong on pomposity, condescension and arrogance. American friends tell me that his attempts at a smile frighten their children and they wonder how he ever got elected to Parliament in the first place – let alone the highest office in the land, to which, of course, he has never actually been elected.

David Hadley,

Henley-in-Arden.

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Lend a paw for sick animals

Dear Editor PDSA has launched an exciting new project in Aston to help raise funds to care for sick and injured pets in Birmingham, and we are appealing for local animal lovers to lend a ‘paw’ and get involved!

PDSA is opening a processing and distribution centre, handling the thousands of items such as clothing, books and homeware donated by supporters. Staff and volunteers will prepare donated items for sale in local PDSA shops to help raise vital funds for pets in need of vets.

PDSA’s first veterinary clinic in Birmingham opened over 70 years ago. Today, we have two PetAid hospitals in Aston and Quinton, where nearly 100,000 free treatments are carried out every year. PDSA doesn’t receive government or lottery funding, so we rely on the generosity of the public to fund the PetAid service.

So, if you’re looking to meet new people, gain warehouse experience or simply help a good cause, please contact PDSA’s National Volunteering Centre on freephone 0800 854 194 or visit www.pdsa.org.uk/volunteers.

Janet Compton,

PDSA Head of Volunteering.

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In need of ideas to get moving

Dear Editor, The possibilities for high-speed travel developments are opening up (Post, May 6). They now need the political will and commitment to take a viablescheme forward.

We need to think of ourselves as a city at the heart of the nation, not as just a provincial city since funding needs to reflect that. This would make it comparable to schemes like the London Cross-City scheme and the underground extension to the Millennium Dome which were in the order of billions rather millions of pounds.

By bringing into play the the Chiltern Line route makes the possibility of four tracking if necessary. If you take the train to Coventry you wonder how that could happen easily, while the Marylebone route already has the infrastructure.

There were once four tracks as you can see from the bridges.

What we now need are comparable ideas for rapid transport in and aroundBirmingham itself. Is Shanghai’s Maglev worth looking at?The Post could help by restarting its “Get Moving” campaign!

John Tyrrell,

Handsworth.

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A nation hell bent on laying sporting booby traps

Dear Editor, Why is it in England that we are unable to get our decisions on selection and management right, particularly in sport?

Analysing management in business, electing the wrong governments and prime ministers is for another day. But one wonders what and why and how we achieved the reputation of a great past? We lose more than we win.

The Football Association, the ECB and the MCC continue to go from one crisis to the next, ensuring that they dig deep holes for themselves and us in the future; it is as if they are hell bent on building themselves booby traps.

One cannot get more controversial than the appointment of Pietersen as a captain for the English cricket team, other than the Twenty/20 slog ball. It seems that the selectors seem to be obsessed with celebrity or media names. Pietersen is not a leader of men; he is a cavalier, a loner, who does his own thing when he wants to do it and how he wants to do it.

Obviously, as I always believed, our problems start at the top in management and selections of management; who selects the selectors anyway? I seem to remember we had a fellow called Beckham as captain, a leader. Here we go again.My My!

Did I hear somebody say it was Australia next summer? An appointment from our County Championship of a successful County 11 would have been more sensible, but what has sense got to do with it?

Douglas J Wathen,

Salford Priors.