A couple of years past the autumn I phoned Scottish Borders Council at St Boswells to enquire as to when the grass on the Moat Hill was going to be cut as it was grossly overgrown. The young man on the other end of the phone asked: "Where's that?" To a Teri that was enough to make my heart miss a beat! Joking aside, I do not expect all our council office employees to know every nook and cranny in the Borders, but if my enquiry had been made to Hawick Toon Cooncil or Roxburgh District Council, they would have known what I was talking about.

I have a feeling that centralisation will be the downfall of this country. I am sure most people will have experienced pressing buttons 1, 2 or 3 and getting nowhere. That is just the tip of the iceberg. People sitting behind desks in far-off places are not interested in your problem. They give you the information they think will suffice.

A recent experience with NHS 24 in the 'wee sma oors' involved a nurse who, after attending to a patient in Burnmouth, was sent down to Hawick to attend to another patient. Quite a journey in the dark on winding Borders roads for a professional who was not too well acquainted with the area.

Britain was an efficient country and the majority of the population was conscientous, but with centralisation of numerous institutions, inefficiency has crept in, and I feel this country is in danger of sliding down the slippery slope. I am sorry to be a witness to this.