Hey Tom, If you haven't, you should read Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged". The slow dissolution of the world by those who believe that want equals need—that because they want, they should have, without regard for respect or morals—are the same forces that are forcing the emergency services into self-defence mode. In Dublin I've read reports of the fire brigade and ambulance being called into utopian 1960s mass-housing units, being barricaded in and then stoned from above. What do you do when you have to deal with people who shirk all moral responsibility and see other people's skills as belonging to them? How do you react? And how can papers like The Sun not be called out by those in charge of the ambulance service. Isn't this slander or liable? I think it's a shame that society has sunk to such a low level that an ambulance worker has to do a safety assessment when his sole reason for being there is to help. The emergency services need to start an education campaign on the level that Sun readers would understand which shows how life would be if there were no emergency services. Something along the lines of "You need us, we don't need you. Give respect to the people who risk their lives to help you." That or maybe the journalists at The Sun should be exempt from emergency treatment? See how they like it. Demand respect Tom. Challenge a journalist to a debate on the merits of how they've helped the world.