Poorly served

Tucked away on page 6 of Wednesday’s edition of The Scotsman is an important paragraph telling us that Asda’s Income Tracker (a far more representative source than the politically-spun polls beloved of party leaders) has concluded that families are £14 per week poorer than a year ago.

£14 to a rich man’s family is meaningless – less than small change; £14 to a poor family is the difference between seeing their children eat or starve next winter.

If we were truly “all in it together” the wealthy would be taxed in such a way that the recession bit into their lifestyles as deeply as it did to the poor.

Anyone can stand in the street and wave a Saltire as the band marches past, but the country is in desperate need of political leaders prepared to roll their sleeves up, take on the big battalions of vested interest, feed our hungry and house our homeless… and I don’t see any, do you?

I expect they are all out soliciting those same vested interests for vast donations to the party coffers – the poor don’t stand a chance.

David Fiddimore

Calton Road

Edinburgh