MIKE Spry continues to assert that the forerunners of the Trade Union existed prior to 1900, a point with which I whole heartedly agree, where we are at odds is in his incorrect assertion that the Labour Party has existed for over 200 years and that with the Trade Unions are solely responsible for 'bringing the people in the UK a better and longer life'.

I am sorry that Mike believes that people, as opposed to economic theories, want to see starving children, an infirm elderly person or people out of work.

However, I do accept his implied contention that many ‘isms’ including capitalism, communism and socialism use work and labour as a means of controlling economic output.

I can also attest to being a ‘victim’ of the days when unemployment and interest rates were high, and my mother with six children was denied ‘National Assistance’ and that under a Labour Government led first by Harold Wilson and then Jim Callaghan. I am sure many readers will recollect the ‘Social Contract and Dennis Healey being booed off the stage at the Labour Party conference having told the delegates the Government couldn’t spend money it didn’t have.

I did not seek to justify food banks; I asked whether food poverty was worse today than it was post war, given Germany lifted rationing ahead of Britain and a Labour government imposed stricter rationing immediately post war, that seemed a fair question to ask.

Finally, I am sorry that Mike chooses to use the despicable and inhuman treatment of British POWs by the Japanese as his best shot against the Government’s overhaul of sickness benefits, a process with which he is well within his rights to disagree.

DES MORGAN Caraway Drive, Swindon