AST week I attended a meeting in Coleford to be consulted on a plan to close the Magistrates' Court. A most able civil servant from the Ministry of Justice claimed he was there to answer any questions. I was one of seven people invited to represent our parish councils. We all told him we did not like the idea and more likely when it shuts down the only two magistrates' courts left in the county will be in Gloucester and Cheltenham. That, for Foresters, is a long and difficult journey. This is just one of the "cuts," a relatively small one. There are going to be a lot more and we are all going to suffer as jobs go, benefits reduce, roads crumble, school roofs leak and household bills rise.

Certainly our national deficit has to be made up. The question is how this should be done and at what pace. The suspicion is that Cameron and Co are exploiting the situation to yank the country (excuse the pun) into copying totally the American capitalist model where short-sighted profit rules and respect for human beings is limited to the winners. In evidence ponder last week's offer to all chief executives of NHS Trusts of £130,000 provided they resign now. NHS employees are not entitled to any redundancy payments whatsoever and they have little security. But you must have executives, where are they going to look for them?

My stomach is not strong enough to read the whole of Blair's book but the extracts reported

nauseate me. What previous prime minister has gone public with intimate details of his love life with his wife? And I consider she is just as bad when she told the world how she conceived at Balmoral because she had forgotten to pack her contraceptive equipment. One hopes she doesn't mention this to Pope Benedict during his visit.?But again I don't care how many prostitutes (or escorts) Wayne Rooney goes with so long as he remembers where the goal is when he is wearing an England shirt. Equally I am appalled when our self-appointed envoy to the Middle East argues that the time might come when we seek a military confrontation with Iran. Even American generals are backing away from that one.

It is historical fact that for two centuries the Tories have fought against just about all the measures to make our country a better place, votes for all, civil rights, trade union recognition, social reform, gender equality and above all the Welfare State. The only exception was Disraeli the first Tory Prime Minister to deplore that Britain had become two nations, the haves and have-nots and he did something about it. Queen Victoria thought the world of him. When he was on his death bed she sent a message saying she would like to visit, but he replied "No she would only give me a message for Albert."

Gladstone was arguably the greatest driving force and four times prime minister. School text books show him chopping down trees when frustrated with the Irish problem. His other hobby was not reported in the press, reforming prostitutes. The bag named after him concealed his whips. So he is not the perfect model for whichever of the Miliband brothers gets to lead the Labour Party.

My choice of inspiration for the new leader was born on August 15 1865 in a one room house 10 miles from Glasgow. No schooling.?At age eight Keir Hardie was paid 3s and 6d a week for a 12 hour day as a delivery boy at a baker's. On New Year's Eve, with his father away looking for work, his young brother slowly dying and his mother starting labour, no food in the house, he was sacked for being 15 minutes late. The wealthy baker even refused to pay his week's wages "to teach him a lesson."

He did, and Hardie founded the Labour Party, became the first working-class MP who had a vision of a just society, and setting up the Welfare State. He caused a riot in the House of Commons when he criticised the playboy Prince of Wales, later King Edward 7th, Burlington Bertie. But we do need an opposition leader able and brave enough to expose the Coalition's great con.

These proposed huge cuts will bring misery to millions. They are designed to destroy forever the vision of a society where everyone who can works to the best of their ability and is rewarded fairly. Some call that Socialism. And it might be the Labour Party will rediscover why they were founded. Then the millions of us who left the party might return to it. – Roger Horsfield, Pastors Hill, Bream.