Oh, Woe, Woe and Thrice Woe!

...screams the headline, conjuring up ghastly images of the dead lying unburied in morgues, rubbish sacks lining the streets, the sick and elderly dropping like flies in unattended hospitals...

Oh, wait, they've got specific in the actual story:

Colchester is set to lose out on days of actions, PCSOs and vital community services after the Government demanded its money back.

Ah. So pointless grandstanding and publicity seeking for Righteous causes and uniformed powerless cretins are set to be cut. Well, that's not exactly the biblical disaster promised by the headline, is it?

But what about those 'vital community services'?

Much of the money, including £56,000 aimed at boosting recycling in Colchester, has already been spent.

Ah. More of the same, then...

Mrs Dopson (councillor responsible for communities) said cutting funding would badly damage the Government’s “Big Society” dream because charities would no longer be able to afford to help people in need.

Far be it from me to suggest that charities that rely on government giving them the money because no public donations are forthcoming should go to the wall anyway...