I M not being rude when I say that one of the latest initiatives from the interfering politicians and their bureaucratic lapdogs is bloody stupid. And it is certainly making my blood boil. Drastic job cuts and laboratory closures are proposed in the nat

I'M not being rude when I say that one of the latest "initiatives" from the interfering politicians and their bureaucratic lapdogs is bloody stupid.

And it is certainly making my blood boil.

Drastic job cuts and laboratory closures are proposed in the national blood service.

Plans are afoot to drastically scale down eight blood centres dotted around the country and centralise their work at three of the others, turning them into new super-centres in North London, Bristol and Manchester.

And this is being done in the name of progress, supposedly.

What a lot of rot.

This lot in power seem hell bent on cutting back by making services more remote for those using them.

Apart from the threat to move some of our local hospital services to a hard-to-access site miles away, the ambulance services have been merged to make them enormous, distant organisations.

Another possibility being mooted is to close most of the fire service emergency call centres and replace them with just a handful around the country, so if you are ringing for help as your home burns around your ears you could be met with the query: "Which county is that in?"

Creating regional assemblies, the workings of which are understood by only a few politicians, is another not-so-bright idea.

Now it seems that district and borough councils are scurrying around to come up with innovative ideas to justify them not being amalgamated into county or even bigger conglomerates out of sight and mind of most of the people they serve.

And so it seems the vital blood service is going the same way, drawing it away from the heart of the body of people for whom it is there.

Blood service workers were so worried about the future that they held protests outside blood centres across England.

They did it, appropriately enough, yesterday on Valentine's Day when hearts are meant to pound stronger.

The fear is that some hearts won't be pounding at all if this daft idea of centralisation goes through.

I can't say that I take much notice of what unions have to say but I would not disagree with Amicus which claims that the closure plan is dangerous and will result in a geographical gap in services.

Deliveries dependent on the road network would be riskier through traffic accidents and bad weather, as evidenced recently by high winds and snow which caused severe disruption to blood supplies throughout the UK.

And that was with a dozen sites. Just imagine how bad it could be with just three main centres operating.

This week's news on teenage attitudes towards debt made worrying reading.

A survey revealed that over half of England's teenagers have been or are in debt by the time they are 17.

Most of them worry about their money and spending but tend to think of overdrafts and credit cards as easy ways to spend more.

To me, that sounds like they are thinking as adults already.