Sorry to disturb your complacency but don't look now - the country is falling apart.

We have become so sanguine about depressing news. One more revelation about the disgraceful state of the railways has about as much effect as yet another disclosure about horrors in hospital corridors.

Dreadful isn't it - and thanks, yes, I'll have another glass of red wine.

Well, it is time to wake up. So much is going wrong it has become frightening. And if you think I am overstating the case, let me disabuse you.

In this godless country of ours, with one of the world's most prosperous economies, Christianity, according to the most senior Church leaders, is "nearly vanquished" and a "tacit atheism prevails".

The fact that England soccer players, albeit under the imported guidance of a Swede, have managed to beat Germany and Albania, is no antidote.

Rail users during the past year have endured the worst disruption since 1945. In the winter months ahead, a fifth of trains will continue to be late.

Shockingly, in spite of Hatfield, the number of trains passing through red danger signals rose to 50 in July, compared with 31 in July last year.

First-class mail deliveries in the first quarter of the financial year were the worst for the past four years.

Fifteen per cent of letters failed to be delivered the following day. At least Consignia had the grace to admit such a performance was unacceptable.

Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon is considering cutting the size of the Army by 8,000 because of difficulties retaining experienced personnel and finding new recruits.

Schools are suffering their most widespread crisis for 40 years.

Four out of ten new teachers leave the profession within three years and schools could be 70,000 staff short by the end of 2004. It is hardly surprising with a 400 per cent increase in criminal claims against teachers.

Nothing is being learned. This week's case of the teacher cleared of assault and causing actual bodily harm for accidentally spilling fruit juice on a ten-year-old is typical of the nonsense being brought to our courts.

The Government's incompetent handling of the foot-and-mouth epidemic has meant that more than 2,000 cases have made it '"the worst outbreak of the disease ever known in the world". Tony Blair is accused of killing off the countryside.

The Home Office will try to make us believe there are more effective police on the street.

The underfunded, undermanned police force is to be boosted by 30,000 special constables, already nicknamed hobby-bobbies. Instead of recruiting and training properly-paid, full-time officers, the Government will squander nearly £300 million a year on this madcap scheme.

Add the desperate shortage of nurses and doctors. Add the Government's paralysed response to the crisis of asylum seekers. Add the pitiless refusal to pay for the elderly in need of care and our children struggling to cope with the cost of university education.

What is going wrong with Britain?