THE Welfare State seems to have morphed into the State of Welfare, with those good, great intentions completely out of control.

Can you believe that the taxes extracted from the working classes are being spent on international aid, funding nuclear powers India and Pakistan? Whilst our wonderful and certainly very necessary institution ‘The National Health Service’ is in need of help and reform, it’s become so top heavy, too huge, and this is affecting the original intention, the delivery of an efficient, caring service.

Perhaps it’s better that the control is given back to local level. This remote method of management is costing far too much.

It’s now the biggest single employer in Europe, making it unwieldy, and those running it too remote, out of touch with the bedside care.

Unfortunately, we and the politicians are all scared of suggesting changes, no matter how vital, to what has become the nation’s ‘Sacred Cow’.

As a kid, the Doctors Man called every Friday collecting his money religiously, which was there with the Prudential, rent and clothing club.

My father also paid a small sum weekly to The Royal Infirmary. These two payments were our family’s health insurance, which allowed me to have the operation to cure my squint.

Of course life was a little simpler then and, believe me, after the operation it certainly was for me, now I could look folk straight in the eye.

I was in an extremely large supermarket on Saturday. It was huge and seemed to sell everything, and I mused about ‘how many small shops has it put out of business’. Then on the cash counter were at least 20 different leaflets advertising all the services they offer.

In no time there’ll be only a couple of superstores fighting for our custom, catering for all our needs. The rest will have gone. Then, when we are completely at their mercy, the prices will rise.

No doubt about it, superstore owners are on the ball.

Maybe they should be co-opted to run the health service, benefits and, dare I say it? The Country