morgan of Varteg In addition to my piece about the tolls on the two crossings, I came across a bit of info in a recently published book regarding the 'defence' expenditure for 2003, to be blunt about the figure quoted, I would say it was obcene to say the least, especially when all the things wrong in the country are taken into consideration. And the sum mentioned.... Forty One Thousand Million plus Pounds. in numerical terms that is £41,000,000,000+ Just ten percent of that would solve most of the transport problems on the roads. With an armed force of some 320,000 personnel where does all this money got to These new Eurofighters cost millions of pounds each and we are getting more of them than we have pilots to fly them it seems. Another question I have for the government on the matter of these very expensive machines. Who pays the bill when one of them is destroyed,(in peacetime), by mechanical failure or pilot error. I am sure that the Norwich Union or the Pru are unlikely to pay on such a item, so who does cough up, is it us the taxpayer? pd from Chepstow My family live in Chepstow. My wife and I work in Bristol and our daughter attended West of England Uni. For 3 years it was three times a day we paid to cross that bridge. This due to widely differing working patterns... I think we've paid for it (by the way I alone have crossed it most days for the last 20 years).... yeah, yeah we know what your thinking... but we like Chepstow \ Wales. And no... neither my wife nor I got any assistance from our employer. Morgan of Varteg Not quite sure if PD is having a dig, as he is not very specific in his general comment, however he is sore enough to agree that the whole thing is a big rip off. We have paid for these roads for the last century or so, it was that 'hero' of the hour, Churchill who stole the Road Fund Tax and gathered it into the realms of general taxation, hence the lack of either maintenace or new roads where they are most needed, plus the sensible upgrading of the existing road network. There were more important things to waste our Road Tax on, such as employing more and more wasters in the government and local government offices. That they contribute nothing but larger and larger burdens on to the average citizen, in the way of rules and regulations, plus an eternal skyrocketing of the tax take, is patentley obvious to anyone with an ever decreasing pay packet. The wrinkley's are getting more of a sizable part of the electorate, and may soon decide that they cannot fund this profligate system of government, then perhaps the day will dawn when those who produce nowt will get nowt. And that includes fees to cross from one part of the country to another. l fernandez cardiff what about parking charges out side your house in cardiff and tolls to go to town also the councils tax up again the bridge has been an un fair tax on welsh people for too long scrap it now Do you agree or disagree with Morgan's view? Your name, surname and location: (All these details MUST be included for publication) Comment: Your Email Address The BBC reserves the right to select and edit comments. Find out how to make sure your comments are published. To submit a larger contribution or if you require a response please contact us.