Madam,

It seems to me that in 1945 the working class had reached a point where they were fed up with being treated badly by the privileged class and wanted to bring about change.

This brought about an election win for the Labour Party and the birth of the NHS, the best thing that ever happened in this country which meant, for example, children who had asthma did not die because their parents were too poor to afford medicine.

Councils built affordable houses for rent; trade unions fought for workplace pensions and better rates of pay and workers during the 60's and 70's started to move from renting to buying their own homes. Since the beginning of the 80's with the election of Margaret Thatcher and then Tony Blair, who was Margaret Thatcher in drag, we have had an erosion of the working-class standard of living and an enormous increase in the wealth of the top 5% of the population.

We know see food banks being set up because people can't afford to feed themselves, I think you would have to go back to the beginning of the last century for things to be that bad, in England we have lost free prescriptions for the under 60's and this government is looking to push that to 66 and then 68, and they want to push state retirement to 70. So, I ask is the clock being turned back in favour of the rich at the expense of the poor?

Paul Dakin