Your excellent leader (“Too much pressure on the poor”, 26 October) says it as it is; the poor are becoming desperately poorer from the effects of legislation from a Government that doesn’t really get it. Many of us who see this on a daily basis know it to be true. This growing poverty produces an “illness of meaning” and this becomes a breeding ground for crime, violence, addiction and emotional stress, that in the long run will cost us dearly. When people who struggle on a daily basis just to exist, even when working, can feel that they are being treated with arrogant ignorance by those who legislate, then we can expect the worst. Religious leaders of all faiths need together to be a thorn in the flesh to the present Government and do all in their power to