Ceri Jayes, of Lower Warren Road, Kingsbridge, writes:

I was astonished to read that the National Rural Crime Network found that the true cost of illegal activity in rural areas could exceed £800m, Gazette, October 2.

It seems that 39 per cent of rural people are worried about being a victim of crime and that many victims do not bother to report crimes, as they think nothing will be done to help them.

This underreporting suggests that a whopping 403,000 crimes were committed between April 2014 and May 2015 – not the 294,000 that the Home Office figures portray.

Farmers and families in the countryside fear that they could be targeted by criminals and our rural police are stretched to the limit with their budget forever being squeezed.

We are told that the Conservative Government is doing everything to control spiralling debt, yet on September 23 the chancellor George Osborne pledged £3m of taxpayers’ money as a gift to teach the Chinese how to play football.

Far East countries such as China and Japan have plenty of money to fund sports, should they wish. Japan’s win against South Africa in the Rugby World Cup is an example of this.

Am I missing something?