I totally agree with Mr Reeve that conductors should be returned to our buses. Not only does it provide a service to the passenger, but it creates employment as well. The same ideology could be applied to other services.

I was amazed to find on a recent trip to the USA that when I pulled into a petrol station, a couple of youngsters rushed out to fill my car with fuel, check the oil, wash the windscreen and check my tyre pressures, as all part of the service. Something similar happening in this country is out of the question, but in these times of massive youth unemployment I think that our petrol companies should adopt the same approach. After all, the government keeps banging on about the private sector taking up the slack in creating jobs. But in my experience this is just not happening, in fact the reverse seems to be taking place as private companies shed thousands of jobs.

Even our only growth industry (supermarkets) have introduced self checkouts so that we can serve ourselves and they can employ fewer people.

We in this country have a history of putting up with the short end of the stick. The big oil companies know that they can foist huge fuel rises on us with impunity in return for a very low level of service, whereas in the US they also know, that they would never get away with it.

– P. Young, Chepstow.