GROWING numbers of Monmouthshire patients who are receiving treatment over the border in England have been getting in touch with me to complain.

They have been told that, in future, they will have to be treated in Wales – regardless of their wishes.

The chief executive of the Aneurin Bevan Health Board does not deny this will be the case for new patients, but says the health board will try to ensure existing patients already being treated in England will continue to have a choice.

Nevertheless, the complaints are mounting, particularly from arthritis sufferers who, I’ve learned, can often be very young.

The sad thing is we no longer have a “National” Health Service in any meaningful sense of the word, but a series of regional health services where different rules apply.

If you live in Wales, Welsh Government policy means that even if there is a treatment centre/ hospital better suited and closer to you in England, you have little chance of being referred there.

RECENT figures available on the Met Office website show that in spite of a huge increase in carbon emissions, there has been no increase in global temperatures since 1997.

This, and much else, suggests to me that current theories on global warming are flawed.

If so, I hope the government will think very carefully before carrying out policies which will push up energy costs and make manufacturing more expensive in the UK, especially as the biggest emitters of greenhouse gases – China and the US – have no intention of following suit.

ON THE issue of the environment, I noticed in the Argus recently that Friends of the Earth are opposing a housing development in Torfaen.

No surprise there, but what irritates me is the refusal of Friends of the Earth to realise that for as long as we continue to allow 250,000 migrants into this country, we will need to build housing, roads, workplaces, schools etc for an extra 250,000 people.

Environmental groups like Friends of the Earth not only refuse to see a link between immigration and development, but many of their supporters are quick to email me to complain whenever the government takes action to curb the numbers of people arriving in the UK.

Green groups please listen: you can be in favour of lots of immigration or fewer houses – but you can’t be in favour of both at the same time.