Sir, After reading the weekly contribution from Meyrick Brown (Observer 6/5/05) I was nearly in tears (laughing). I have never heard such a load of pathetic whining in my life. Seemingly all the troubles of rural Britain are engineered by those nasty people from the city who live in a suburban utopia. Allow me to enlighten you M. Brown. We too have elderly people and not so elderly who are afraid to go out at night, and in some places in the day time as well (but check the comparative crime figures for your address and mine). We too have children who are encouraged to walk and cycle to school by officialdom (but compare the accident rate). Running a reliable car is as expensive in the city as anywhere else (check the comparative insurance rates). Everyone is subject to the 65 year age cut off date for motability; it's national. The closure of country shops is the result of country people transferring their custom to the nearest supermarket via the mentioned reliable car. Banks are in the business of making a profit and if they fail in this effort in the country it is most likely for the same reason as the country shop's demise. NHS doctors are forming group practices in main centres to increase efficiency and in recognition of the ownership of the above mentioned reliable car by the patient. NHS dentists are a problem nationally. The 20-30 mile round trip to work is not uncommon to urban dwellers; it's called commuting. If the baker and the milkman are a dying breed, it is most likely because country dwellers drive in their reliable cars to the supermarket to stock up on cheap supplies to put in their freezers. I am ignorant as to the gender of Meyrick Brown, never having encountered the name previously, but if he/she considers themselves hard done by in comparison to the city dweller and for some paranoid reason blames us for his/her unhappiness, should not he/she relocate to the city where he/she can be mugged, burgled or perhaps occasionally shot (check the crime figures and insurance rates). He/she can have the pleasure of gazing from the 15th storey of a tower block of flats over the back yard and roofs of neighbours stretching away into the distance culminating in the vista of the local gas tanks and redundant railway yards whilst listening to the music emanating from a seven-lane motorway. We city dwellers travel great distances to spend what time we can in Pembrokeshire for the pleasure of its as yet largely unspoilt coast and country that benefits from its National Park status. Treasure what you have M. Brown, love it, appreciate it and protect it as it is, because if you demand all the so- called conveniences of a city, then a city is what you will end up with.
J. Doy,