I NOTE from your Comment (Letters, September 12) that it is perceived that the recent picketing, boycotting of refineries, etc. is now losing public support. Personally, I do not agree.

Certainly, in my working environment, a local hospital, I have not encountered anyone who does not fully support the recent action, even though they may be -- or expect to be -- inconvenienced themselves.

Indeed, it seems there is admiration for people who have decided to "vote with their feet" instead of complaining, yet doing nothing about it.

Tony Blair says the high rate of duty on fuel is necessary to fund our NHS. Why then am I paying in excess of £70 a month National Insurance contributions?

It is time the Government realised there is a growing realisation that everything is over-priced and we have been paying "over the odds" for many years.

One of the main offenders is the Government itself. The extortionate duty on products has resulted in people "importing" large quantities of tobacco, the decline of public houses and, of course, the most recent fuel fiasco.

Many people perceive there are other ways the Government could fund the economy.

One commonly-held view is that there are far too many "hangers on" in this country: people who have never worked, those claiming disability, etc. allowances who are perfectly capable of employment and those bringing into this country extended families from other countries.

Why is it that so-called "asylum seekers" always head for this country? Could it be because our Welfare State is altogether too generous to those who have not contributed to it.

Once Britain was recognised as one of the most civilised, prosperous and enviable nations in the world. I for one am so disillusioned with the decline in standards in all respects, an elected assembly which is totally out of touch with the views and wishes of "the man in the street," and the extortionate rates of taxation levied in all directions on the working population to fund those that do not, that in the not too distant future it is the intention of my partner and me to retire to Spain which we find to be more civilised and where our pensions will provide a much higher standard of living than we could ever hope for in declining "Rip-off Britain".

P M ROBERTS (Mrs), Lower Barnes Street, Clayton-le-Moors.