Letter: How great was it anyway? Not as bad as it is now

WHAT James Buchan ('How great was it anyway?' Review, 17 January) takes to be a national bewilderment is actually a horrified suspicion that after a century of rolling down a slope we have finally fallen off the edge.

As President Clinton gives the United States hope and faith in its institutions, we find ourselves with a disreputable Royal Family, a Prime Minister out of his depth, a Chancellor over his credit limited, a Government out of touch, an irrelevant House of Lords, an impotent House of Commons, a Conservative Party owned by vested interest, a Labour Party intellectually and financially bankrupt, a defunct Liberal Democratic Party, the law out of reach and making mistakes, the police ineffective and falsifying evidence, our houses burgled, our cars stolen, our streets unsafe, our schools burning down, our hospitals being closed, our airline breaking the law, our ships sailing under foreign flags, our trains not running, our traffic stationary, our industry in receivership, our imports going up, our exports going down, our children on drugs, our graduates unemployed, our old people neglected.

We no longer have faith in any of our institutions or leaders. Bewildered? Numbed actually.

Harry Jones

March, Cambridgeshire