AFTER reading the letter from Col Lloyd I felt I had to put pen to paper due to the comments he made about "the assorted tramps, dossers, wastrels, beggars, general ne'er do wells and anti-social elements" as he called them.

Just because a person has no home it does not mean that they are bad or dishonest. There is good and bad in all walks of life, including the army and the church.

You cannot say someone is a beggar or wastrel because of the clothes they wear. Col Lloyd probably pays more for his 'hand-made brogues" than most of these people have to live off for two weeks or more.

We all want to live in a free and safe country but attitudes like his will not help. I wonder if he has ever stopped to speak to any of these people.

He may be surprised to find that a lot of them are very well educated and have held various jobs from soldiers to students and teacher etc. and, through no fault of their own - maybe mental or physical illness, death of a loved one, loss of job or home - their life has changed dramatically.

I note he has two grandchildren aged six and eight.

I wonder what the future holds for them?

He should remember these people are all someone's child or grandchild.

Carol Almond

Langdale Road

Newton

Lancaster

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.