IT comes as no surprise that the government, in its quest to make sure that the pensioners of this country are the downtrodden people of Europe, have found another way of extracting their hard earned savings, this is by effectively removing dental health from the National Health Service.

I, like many of your readers, received a letter from my local dental practice informing me that it will no longer be part of the NHS and that as a consequence of this it will cost me at least £114 per year to remain in the practice, and that if I choose to stay in the NHS for dental treatment the nearest practice would be Chorley.

I like many other red-blooded males have an allergy to pain, in fact the mere word 'toothache' makes me cringe, therefore my one and only option is to stay with the practice I am with now and pay up, for although I have very few gnashers left I intend to keep them as long as I can.

The worrying thing about this is what can we expect next, no NHS!

J ALLAN (Mr), Rothesay Road, Blackburn.