YOU have to wonder about the way decisions are arrived at in Hampshire at times after reading headlines referring to the hike in care home fees by £730 and the slashing of £21m from the social care budget.

At a time when private care homes are also being squeezed by councils to reduce the already meagre fees for placements in the private sector homes and the reduction of staff across Hampshire, including Southampton, it has been recently announced that up to £400,000 is going to be spent on Twyford viaduct so it can be included within the national cycle route.

I’m all for saving heritage architecture, but at this time, aren’t there higher priorities?

It is a well-known fact that many pensions no longer pay out what was the perceived final pension, thereby undermining many pensioners in their retirement years whether they are in their own homes or in care.

Pensioners in Scotland no longer have these worries as the Scottish Assembly picks up their care costs.

The three main parties conveniently forget to mention these facts as they strive to govern over their respective domains, papering over the cracks in the fabric of English society.

The English Democrats work tirelessly to get this message out into the public arena despite the betrayal of fair and balanced reporting by the national media in favour of the three main parties, LibLabCon. It’s ironic that it takes the Scottish Nationalists’ proposal for a referendum for independence to help bring such inequalities to the fore. I imagine that the Scots are pleased to have the English taxpayer bankrolling such wonderful Scottish public services such as care. I can’t imagine why they want to leave the union.

But at least another piece of the jigsaw that is the national cycle route is going to be put into place in Winchester.

Now tell me you’re glad about that.

JOHN EDWARDS, Eastleigh branch chairman, English Democrats.