I AM taking a break from my daily national newspaper and am trying to limit myself to one scheduled TV news report per day, because it is all having a detrimental effect on my health.

I am far happier not knowing that the country may be brought to its knees by a few tanker drivers lucky enough to have pretty decent jobs. I am shocked and upset by the move to sever the union of four great nations which have together put the great into Great Britain.

I feel that my identity, my Britishness, is under attack from within the very fabric of my assured security. I do not understand the mentality of planning to build thousands of new houses in an already over-crowded south of England, when we are even now struggling to find enough water.

I truly can understand why so many people want to come and live here but when we do not have enough jobs or housing for our own people, I fear the consequences.

I cry at the creeping urbanisation of the planet and loss of habitat of species which have survived with us over the millennia, yet face extinction through the hands of man.

I am fearful of ever having to go into hospital, having seen at first hand the insensitivity of some nurses. I cannot comprehend the need to change everything because inevitably we meet ourselves coming back.

The more I think about it, the more attractive a desert island becomes... but what if I fell ill or were captured by pirates or there were no fresh water or...?

I guess I am better off in the here and now, with all its illogicality.

MRS S NELDER Dene Road Headington Oxford