Both Aditya Chakrabortty (Opinion, 26 October) and Ken Loach in his film I, Daniel Blake highlight the horrors created by the destruction of social security by austerity and bureaucracy. However, they are in danger of recreating the pernicious distinction between the deserving and undeserving poor. Homelessness, unemployment, ill-health, sanctions and the denial of benefits make some people angry, uncooperative and even violent. Our outrage should not just be on behalf of the nice people.
Ruth Eversley
Paulton, Somerset
• I am told yet again that the decision (Heathrow expansion) is “good for business” (Report, 26 October). We have seen big business drive this country’s economy into one of low wages, low skills, and low productivity. Add in rubbish roads, stuffed trains and minimal housebuilding, plus massive financial misconduct and the trashing of people’s pensions, and it may be “good for business” – but it’s not good for most of us.
Ray Chalker
London
• Stuart Heritage (G2, 25 October) thinks we can all ditch our landlines. Perhaps he could call me on my mobile to discuss. But first he will have to find a way (letter? carrier pigeon?) to let me know when he will be ringing so I can head off out of the house in search of a signal.
Tony Fletcher
Neath, Glamorgan
• My copies of the New York Review of Books have always been snapped up by charity shops (Letters, 26 October). If you live on what Richard Hoggart called “a snobby little island” your magazines have to be literary if they are not to be binned.
Ivor Morgan
Lincoln
• I see that the EFL Cup match on Tuesday evening between Leeds United and Norwich City was attended by 22,222 spectators who witnessed a 2-2 draw (Sport, 26 October). Was this a case of mathematical determinism?
Adrian Brodkin
London
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