As usual, Julian Cole’s weekly column (I think I know what to think, The Press, October 15) is full of biased inaccuracies, this time including a defence of Big Government as the only way to protect the NHS and a denial of a “broken society”.

His views are symptomatic of many who believe there is no alternative to the way UK standards have descended to the level of a third-world banana republic.

Presumably, Mr Cole is happy with a society where the Government intrudes ever more into our daily lives, and believes it knows better than the individual how to spend their hard-earned money, or how to behave or even what to say.

No amount of spin and meaningless statistics can erase the memory of what our society used to be like:

• A murder was a national front page sensation – it now hardly merits a column

• Knife crime was virtually unheard of

• The law protected the victim, not the criminal

• There was a general respect for people and their property

• Swearing in the street was an exception

• We were the United Kingdom – now soon to be an offshore island of a Euro superstate

• Our Parliament set our laws – not a remote and unelected commissioner in Brussels

The list goes on and on.

It is, of course, in the interests of Big Government to dumb down our education and make as many as possible feel reliant on the State; it helps their chances of re-election.

In a mature democracy, the fact that people like Mr Cole are concerned about the possible influence of The Sun newspaper on voters just about sums up the parlous state of a once-great nation.

Martin Smith, Main Street, Elvington, York.