WELCOME to Trowbridge, county town of Wiltshire, ‘Where Everyone Matters’. Oh wait! Do you live outside the town? Then I’m afraid you don’t matter and you aren’t welcome to use our facilities; waste bins, benches, public spaces, the museum, the Civic Centre, leisure facilities, because you don’t contribute to their maintenance. You have to stay outside in your parishes, even though it is almost impossible for them to provide any of these since the town stole part of their income.

For Trowbridge you can substitute England or even the world. It seems these days that lying and bullying to get your own way is fine. Terrorists do it to force the world to have the same beliefs as them; MPs do it to ignore community voices over the fears of fracking, and to achieve their own personal agendas (as during the EU referendum); town and county councillors do it to increase their own power to the detriment of smaller communities; drivers do it to force their way through traffic or park where they like, regardless of the chaos and distress they may cause. The list goes on.

I am saddened to think that people now seem to regard their personal needs as paramount, regardless of the cost to the lives of their fellow humans – tragically brought home only too forcefully to the people of France, again. Gone is the society that helped each other out in times of need or even just showed a small consideration to others in daily life.

Wiltshire has its slogan wrong I’m afraid. It, along with other places, is somewhere where no one matters but selfish bullies.

M Workman, West Ashton