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Martin, what a sensible post and I quite agree with all but the first paragraph and I sympathise with that too. But what did criminals and divorcees do before 1948 when there was no legal aid? Did they fight out their differences on the streets?

I have just been to Llandudno hospital for a heart scan. I went there using my bus pass and the scan was 'free' (sic.). By that I mean, of course, it wasn't free, just that someone else paid for it. Why should this be when I am perfectly capable of paying? And if people get something for nothing, that is the value they put on it. Hence GPs telling me that one of their worst problems is patients not keeping their 'free' appointments. And I might just have been able to scrape together the bus fare after 40 years in the legal profession, well just anyway!

Dishing out these 'free' services in this way might be good for MPs at election time, but it's ruinous for the economy as a whole. And if we had to pay something at the point of delivery we might just value it a bit more highly and be a little more sparing with its use.