Letters: Charles Saatchi’s challenge to Taki, and the battle over Benefits Street

On Benefits Street

Sir: Fraser Nelson asserts that people in charities do not want to talk about what life is like on poverty (‘Britain’s dirty secret’, 18 January). To those of us who have experienced poverty or supported others stuck in it, there is no secret. We didn’t need a sensationalist pseudo-documentary to know that life with no money is grinding, miserable and soul-destroying. However, few answers to the problems of the poor are offered by low-paid workforces combined with flawed markets deciding the value of essential goods and services.

The real means to help people out of this poverty trap would be to reduce rents, utilities and childcare costs while creating a much more generous withdrawal rate of benefits when people start work. Universal Credit attempts to do some of this but does not go anywhere near far enough. The Treasury approach of cutting benefits, which are already set at subsistence levels, is just serving to move people from being poor to destitute, making them less likely to be able to work in the future.
Paul Anderson
Policy Manager of Homeless Link

Croydon, London

Dumb smartphones

Sir: Rory Sutherland’s column about the modern smartphone being rubbish was spot on (The Wiki Man, 18 January). I’m sure they are marvellous at allowing you to learn what Sally Bercow had for breakfast, or what Stephen Fry thinks of roundabouts, but as phones they are hopeless. I detect small signs of a design backlash, however: for my birthday I was given a rather nice leather and Harris tweed iPad case. Next year the Malacca phonestick?
Simon Cockshutt
London W5

Ward was hung out to dry

Sir: William Astor’s defence of his father is understandable (‘Notes on a Scandal’, 11 January). I, though, as Stephen Ward’s nephew and a lawyer, have made a close study of both background and trial.