I AM writing regarding the threatened downgrading of the Alexandra Hospital and the expectation to use Worcester instead.

It is quite interesting Solihull is also in overspend to the tune of £20 million and is facing cuts, with patients being expected to travel to Birmingmam.

I dug a bit deeper and looked a bit further afield and found others in the same overspend position and facing closure.

Warwick Hospital is to use Coventry when it closes.

Isn't it strange how they are all in a £20 million overspend, including The Good Hope Hospital in Sutton Coldfield?

We have just come back from Cumbria and campaigners there are also complaining about hospital closures.

It doesn't take long to realise that it is a national problem caused by a Chancellor who has no concept of how to predict industrial growth forecasts in a country where its industry is moving abroad, where labour is cheap, like rats leaving a sinking ship

Consequently, after stealing from the nation's pension fund, Gordon Brown has set his sights on other targets such as our hospitals and this means he has given £20 million less to each of them but has blamed the problem totally on the rise in oil prices and of, course, never on his inability to manage the nation's economy.

So we are slowly sinking into a Third World hospital system where waiting lists are set to rise in every area.

The elderly will be refused treatment, I kid you not. Over the age of 65, hospital notes carry the abbreviations DNR. To the uninitiated, this means Do Not Resuscitate.

This has been well known for the last five years to my knowledge and will be set to rise as the nation's health deteriates further and our pensionable age increases to 75.

We live in one of the wealthiest countries in the world but without any industry, we are struggling to survive. Cheap imports, a rise in the cost of living with stagnating salaries mean we cannot afford to support our own industries by buying British, due to them being so expensive.

You only have to look at the figures to see the problem. China has an economic growth rate of 20 percent, while ours is 2.5 per cent, give or take a bit.

We are growing less and less as our industry goes abroad. Eventually we will have no growth. Where will the Chancellor get his money from then and where will this go?

Oh yes, of course, a 22 per cent pay rise for politicians. Do they live in the real world?

The elderly are expected to work till they are 75. How in an agest society is this to happen, with health deteriorating?

Needless to say, age discrimination is not policed and Government incentives are non existent.

If you tax industry to the extent Gordon Brown has, you get companies going bankrupt or m oving abroad to survive, as indeed are our elderly. The cost of living is cheaper, the weather is warmer and your £10,000-a-year pension gives you a reasonable standard of living.

It is about time Gordon Brown changed the batteries in his pocket calculator or better still, be shown how it works.

Even better, get someone else to do it.

DENETTE FRANCE

Towbury Close

Oakenshaw