"WHERE there is no vision, the people perish."

Many people like myself will have been listening with increasing doubt, if not despair, to the speeches of would-be Tory leaders, and similarly to the "we have heard it all before" offerings of Tony Blair and his Chancellor.

Hardly at all does one hear the global voice of a lost and threatened humanity.

The world's leaders lack the vision to see real global basic needs and hear that voice. If they did, so much would change.

They might give utterance to that forgotten word "disarmament", and convene international conferences to curb and eventually end the disgraceful waste of resources on weaponry. The only losers would be the disturbed war-mongers in our midst, and the arms kings.

We should see priority given to the checking of global warming: an extra tax on gas-guzzling cars and lorries; the ending of ruinous road schemes which desecrate the countryside; a reversal of the wicked and foolish railway closures of 50 years ago, and a return for support and encouragement for the most green and life-saving mode of travel, by the re-opening of abandoned rail lines; and the employment of the best minds to find a remedy for the polluting effect of air travel.

We should remedy the anomalies in the pensions and council tax areas, with a special view to the plight of pensioners.

We should show towards animals the reverence they deserve. They have done less damage to this world than we have, and they need our protection.

These and other measures require vision and imagination and urgent action. Our leaders lack vision.

Roy Stevens,

Willow Bank,

New Earswick,

York.

Updated: 09:23 Thursday, October 13, 2005