It's heart-warming to read a rational article by Ian Bell as opposed to the vindictive bile emanating from some sections of the media (Benefit cuts: the devil in the detail, Comment, April 7).
The Daily Mail headline, "Vile product of Welfare UK" (referring to Mick Philpott), is a case in point. Using that logic, they could have had the headline: "Dr Harold Shipman – vile product of the NHS".
The Conservatives, with a great deal of support from the public, are using this [the Philpott case] as an argument to slash benefits.
Would the British public, of whom one in three will get cancer, likewise wish to see the atrocities of Shipman used as an excuse to slash the health budget? I think not.
Myra Gartshore
Dumbarton
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