WHAT kind of government permits the withdrawal of social services from a 93-year-old woman suffering from an increasing loss of sight, hearing and mobility (and all that folk of that age have to cope with), and going through a bout of flu with all its attendant miseries, and being denied help, care and rest as she has her 98-year-old husband to look after?

I am not asking for anything -we coped. I just had to get out of bed to attend to the needs of us both, but it took longer to recover.

What kind of society permits very elderly and frail people on their own - with no consultation or inquiry into their circumstances, and the fact that they are entirely on their own without close friends or family - to struggle on when social workers are not allowed to assist?

What kind of Government permits such a state of affairs? If we were ponies, cats or dogs abandoned in sickness and old age, what a hue and cry there would be. It seems to me that we would be better off with the RSPCA keeping an eye on things.

ANNE DODD,

Prestwich.