EXCUSE me if I seem a bit confused of late, but possibly having a long memory more than makes up for it, as I seem to recall the speech made by Margaret Thatcher to the Conservative Party conference on October 9, 1987 and I quote: “There is no such thing as society. There are individual men and women and these are families. It’s our duty to look after ourselves and then look after our neighbour. People have got entitlements in mind without the obligations.”

To condense this famous speech into seven words would be: “I’m all right Jack, pull the ladder up.”

We now have David Cameron in true Etonian style telling us that there is a society after all, and not only that, it is a big one and so this is probably the key to my confusion. I am also perplexed as to if the bankers who got us into our current mess, only to be let off the hook by being slapped on the wrist by Cameron recently, are also part of this so-called big society, as it would appear that they continue to be a law unto themselves.

So it would seem that very few ordinary working family folk count for much in David Cameron’s big society.

G A WOODWARD Nelson Street Swindon