From Mr R. Castillo

I refer to Marisa Micellef’s column entitled “It’s all about taxes, stupid”. (TMIS, 6 March).

Comparing our national heath service, education and pensions with those in Europe may have seemed like a good idea; highlighting the UK was not. State pensions there are not adequate and a few years ago – people with private pension plans saw their value seriously reduced.

The NHS in the UK has been in decline for many years with hospitals becoming top heavy with administrators whose budgets and targets do nothing to improve the lot of patients in the country. Prime Minister Tony Blair’s assertions notwithstanding, MRSA levels in UK hospitals are the highest (percentage wise), or the second highest, in Europe.

State education: in general, if a school is in or near a major city or town, discipline is non-existent, children are bullied, classes disrupted, petty crime rife, and standards abysmally low, despite the ever-lowering of pass grades.

As for the EU, Brussels has been very quiet in recent years on the issue of social services, possibly on account of the various referenda, but it has, on a number of occasions, expressed its concern about their sustainability in the future. This from an organisation that regards with complacency the loss through fraud of thousands of millions of euros in one commission alone, and has consistently ignored calls for an investigation.

Roger Castillo

SLIEMA