I APPLAUD your initiative on children s hospices and I am happy to match your donation. I enclose a cheque for £750 – good luck with HOH. I will also sign your petition, although I believe it to be a waste of time. The Government s standard answer to any

I APPLAUD your initiative on children's hospices and I am happy to match your donation. I enclose a cheque for £750 - good luck with HOH.

I will also sign your petition, although I believe it to be a waste of time. The Government's standard answer to any crisis in the health service is to employ more administrators, co-ordinators, supervisor and other useless bureaucrats.

There are already more administrators in the NHS than hospital beds. So even if Liam Byrne increases the funding "in the future" (what does this mean - a typical politician's evasion) the children are unlikely to see any of it.

This is the real scandal, that the public should be asked to dig deep in their own pockets for charity when we are already paying out billions in taxes which the Government then wastes. There is no shortage of money for the health service in this country - it's just being spent on the wrong people.

This is what Jim Paice and Malcolm Moss and every other intelligent voter in the country should be shouting about.

GORDON BLYTH

Ely