LETTER: Sending foreign aid abroad when we have injustice at home

Some of the measures employed do seem overdue, and perhaps therefore fair; but there is also a large element of opportunism being employed by the right wing of Tory thinking.

They are using these dire times to feather a nest of riches for the rich and sending the poor to the wall.

It is only a month or so ago that a local paper printed on its front page the awful plight of a woman with severe disabilities - blind, less than the normal compliment of limbs, etc., having her sickness benefits withdrawn.

Here we saw another example used by the Government-employed French firm ATOS, who are asked to remove as many people as possible from sickness benefits.

Now it seems that having got rid of all the questionable sickness benefit claimants, ATOS is turning its attention to the long-term sick and permanently disabled, pursuing people like the aforementioned unfortunate lady from Burnley.

I am sure these unfortunates could well do without any further hassle in their lives but it seems ATOS still requires some serious financial disincentive in its day-to-day dealings to drive this point home.

It may be this next statement can yet be proved wrong.

But as far as I know, our local MPs are at best an irrelevance for all the help and involvement they have provided.

It is no use painting on the face of compassion while shipping millions abroad as foreign aid to dubious causes while at the same time actively presiding over the injustice and abuse of our own needy citizens.

Colin Eastwood

Halifax Road, Briercliffe