I WAS thankful to see the reinstatement of a good range of magazines in the York Explore Café/reading room area.

I was pleased to see Country Life was back. Many people would say that this is an elitist magazine for the rich, but it is about the only general interest magazine left and even on subscription (about £2 per week) gives retired serfs and peasants pause for thought before we lash out on it.

Some issues are off my interest scale so I can avoid them by looking at the magazine in the library over a cup of coffee and deciding whether or not to buy.

As far as the new proposals for a Community Benefit Society to run the Library Service, I feel apprehensive. If the council and the Government are so poor where is the money going to come from to pay for the service? Who is rich and where are they getting their money from?

The voter will lose the accountability that the council (with all its faults) still has. Mrs Thatcher’s, “There is no such thing as Society” rings through the proposal.

Britain is a society, not a business. If a business is failing, employers can sack their staff: if a country is failing, they cannot sack their inhabitants (though they do try).

Philip Johnson, Greencliffe Drive, Clifton, York.