NOT that the owners of old folk's homes are owed a living or automatic revenue from Social Services -- the taxpayer, in other words -- but if Blackburn with Darwen Council is assisting them by telling government officials to get lost after refusing to reduce the number of old people admitted to nursing homes, all well and good.

For is there not a mite too much pretence that many elderly people are better off cared for in their own homes -- and official targets being set to make councils comply with this -- when, often, this is not the case at all? In all honesty, many old folk are so confused and incapable of looking after themselves at home that, in between the brief visits of care staff during the day, they have a poor quality of life and are frequently at risk of accident or self-neglect.

That Blackburn with Darwen Council refuses to go along with it and reduce the number of elderly being admitted to homes is laudable -- but also, surely, an admission of its mistake in shutting two of its own.