I WAS appalled to read the front-page story headlined "Rid our city of street rejects" in the Thursday, November 22, edition of the Evening News.

There appears to be a sinister supposition in the article that so-called "vagrants" and "drug-takers" exist solely to inconvenience the city's retailers and embarrass "worthy" citizens.

Yes, homelessness, addiction and hopelessness are problems, though wouldn't you think that the despair often felt by those labelled scrounger, reject and vagrant is just a little more acute than that experienced by whining retailers whose main priority, it seems, is to safeguard their Christmas profits?

It is profoundly disappointing that, at this supposedly festive time of year, the prevailing sentiments are those of greed and superficiality instead of compassion and tolerance; when we favour inflated bank balances and Victorian nostalgia over the suffering of fellow human beings.

We seriously need to question the idea that we're a civilised society. As citizens, would we not be better served by influential yet mean-spirited shop-owners lobbying local government for more hostels and so on and by Evening News journalism untainted by fascistic undertones?

Maybe, with the Evening News' support, we could encourage planning permission for an extermination camp for the county's undesirables instead of one of the many cosmetic regeneration schemes currently proposed?

C GAMESON,

Grafson Place

Droitwich.