Oh no! Not another privatisaton of a highly-sensitive sector? Why is our country so backward in thinking privatisation - in this latest case, of custody centres - will sort things out?

All it actually achieves is the transfer of costs to another company which probably has not the foggiest idea how to run a sector only really managed effectively by the police.

The public sector should never be privatised.

MY wife has advanced osteoporosis of both hips and requires them replaced. The bad news is there is a waiting list of 18 months. In the meantime, she has had all sorts of helpful advice from friends.

This includes falling down the stairs and breaking a hip in order to be treated as an emergency case; getting private treatment in France because it's much cheaper; seeing a specialist privately so he will put her on the NHS waiting list with a much shorter wait and staying with a friend who lives in Ferryhill, Co Durham, who only waited four months for her similar.

Living in the affluent South East isn't all it's cracked up to be after all!

-Paul Hurworth, Bevendean Avenue, Saltdean