IS THIS country going mad? It appears to have contradicting ideas about housing, food production and green issues.

On one hand, we have Margaret Beckett carping on about a housing shortage, which as far as England's point of view, is over exaggerated. The only reason we need more houses is to house immigrants, legal or not, which according to the law they are not considered homeless if they have somewhere in the world to live.

If the Government were to find all the boarded up and empty houses and refurbish them it would go a long way to solving the problem. Yes we do need more houses, but not the number the government says we need.

On the other hand we have the government setting up a committee on Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to study the food system, as we are going to run short of home grown food in a few years time. Surely the answer is to stop building on prime farmland and start using it for what it is for, growing food. Now there's a thought. I am sure this country, with a little more thought, is quite capable of feeding itself without importing everything.

Even Mr Chris Brown, head of sustainable and ethical sourcing at Asda has said: "The way land is used needs to be tackled, including the number of major developments in areas which were previously farmland." Perhaps the councils will take this into account when they receive all the suggestions for land on which to build five or more houses, that they are advertising for in local papers. To try and find land for Margaret Beckett's extra houses.

Has anyone looked at our island on the world map lately? How small we are compared with the rest of the world, yet we still think we can make a difference to what is going on in the world. We should stop giving our assets away and try to hang on to what we have.