HOW appropriate that the Prime Minister should have relaunched his Big Society initiative on the same day that the county council voted to destroy so much of the hard-won infrastructure on which this initiative, if genuinely meant, should depend.

The Big Society is not only a cloak for these cuts, it is also a smokescreen behind which the Government can cut itself loose from obligations to provide services which have long been universally regarded as the hallmarks of a caring and civilized society.

So here, from the wreckage, are some suggested dos and don’ts: don’t be young; don’t be unemployed; don’t be lonely; don’t be elderly; don’t be disabled; and don’t have aspirations to improve your education by using a local library.

If you fall into any of these groups, you will receive scant support from the council.

On the other hand, do remember the money that has been squandered recently: the Cornmarket road surfacing failures; the stalled Transform Oxford scheme; the hundreds of futile 20mph signs erected even in 50-metre cul-de-sacs; the millions tied up in the Icelandic banking fiasco; and the tens of thousands paid to management consultants.

Above all, watch and protest at every single penny spent unnecessarily by the council and hold them accountable at every opportunity between now and the next elections in May 2013.

Do they think we are so stupid and fickle that we will not remember?

MARTIN ROBERTS, Stone Close, Botley, Oxford