I AM pleased that Malcolm Pratt has gained so many benefits from the present Labour Government in free travel, heating payments and the bailing out of Northern Rock, etc (HAS, Dec 30), that I assume as a pensioner he is entitled to through various schemes, but is he that naive to think that all this is paid for from a bottomless pit of cash that the Government has hidden in Downing Street?

No, in fact it is paid for by people like me, the working man of this country, who tries to earn a decent wage and as a single man is stung by taxes left, right and centre by a government that at present is not likely to last another six months.

I am not a particularly politically-minded person, but I will be glad when Gordon Brown and his crawling cronies have been voted out of office as it cannot get much worse than it is at the moment.

By the way, I wish I could afford to retire and enjoy the benefits that Mr Pratt and others enjoy after a lifetime of work supporting others of his ilk.

Des Murphy, Crook, Co Durham.