ERIC Hyland in his letter on May 14 states, “there can be no confusion that the number of children classed as being in poverty has increased by 1 million since 2010”.

Since 2010, unemployment in the UK has decreased and the economy is in far better shape than it ever was under Labour, so an increase of “1 million” children classed as living in poverty seems decidedly implausible to me and I very much doubt the figures Mr Hyland is quoting are accurate, but are probably political spin.

But the letter he has written he conveys an impression that he is an authority on the subject, so perhaps he may like to further enlighten readers as to how many of the extra “1 million” children that he claims are now living in poverty in the UK since 2010 are actually living in households where, for example; one or both parents smoke and/or consume alcohol (not to mention illegal substances) on a regular basses?

I would make an educated guess that statistics on this, if they were ever to be made available, would be quite revealing!

There is an argument that children who are being neglected by their parent’s (either consciously or subconsciously) are living in poverty.

But this "parentally induced poverty" is hardly the fault of the government as Eric Hyland is quite clearly implying.

I am no big fan of the Tories, but the economic path the Conservative Party tends to follow is clearly more conducive in encouraging personal freedoms and liberties and as well is more inclined to promote a stronger and a fairer economy, than the brain dead ideological diktats that are being put forward by the Labour party

But if Mr Hyland actually believes things would really improve under a Labour/Corbynista dictatorship; then he is indeed most deluded.

Unless criminal neglect is involved, children in the United Kingdom do not starve and are not, for example, denied good quality medical care and an education.

“There can be no confusion that”, if Jeremy Corbyn ever got into No 10 his "potty" Marxist ideologies, of high taxation, the curtailment of personal liberties and freedoms, etc, would in no doubt lead to the destruction of free enterprise, which would sequentially lead to the ultimate and complete collapse of the UK economy.

If that were to happen, Mr Hyland, “actual” child poverty in the UK would in reality become a very terrifying prospect, which as you know, has already happened in “every” country were previously this misanthropic Marxist ideology espoused by Corbyn and Co has been tried in the past.

Stuart A Chapman

Co Kerry

Ireland