The other half

Writing on the welfare system (Letters 25 January), John Cameron is absolutely right.

His use of excessive language couched in archaic bombast from a long gone era; his total lack of understanding of how the benefits system works; his pseudo-intellectual approach to what is a very real situation facing many of the most vulnerable in our society, who are being confronted with swingeing cuts to their benefits as part of some kind of nightmarish far-right ideological experiment; his utter lack of empathy with or sympathy for a large group of people currently largely powerless to re-shape their own destiny; his wild exaggerations, which culminate in his equating many folk on benefits with criminals. All these things combine to prove his central point. Namely, Dr John Cameron does not know how the other half lives. Nor does he much care.

Douglas Turner

Derby Street

Edinburgh