CERTAIN diseases hijack the body’s defences and turn them against the body itself, and one issue threatens to do the same to our national character and constitution.

This is tragic, if for no other reason than that we are currently facing the most momentous election in our lifetime, yet many people, including traditional voters, say the don’t know how to vote or indeed even if they will.

(Nor does the timing help, and may I say that I think it totally irresponsible to call an election for mid-December, with all the implications that has for the elderly and other vulnerable people?)

In fact, we are currently facing several crucial issues, not just whether or how to leave the EU and this election should be about them as well as that.

Issues like Universal Credit, which is a pustulent abscess on our body-politic that has caused infinite harm, including terminal breakdown, family break up and countless other horrors.

In fact, cynicism and unreality seem to have become endemic in this country, and you can only hope that the immediate future is not as dangerous and traumatic as it might well be.

Tony Kelly, Crook.