SIR – Fair play to Shipley Conservative MP Philip Davies for highlighting the abuse of welfare by residents of Birmingham B18 postcode area, although I am sure that situation is replicated in every other town and city across the UK – encouraged by the last Labour government, which bought many of its votes this way.

That largesse for the feckless has been paid for not by taxing the wealthy but the working poor and OAPs in so many stealthy ways.

This can never be right, as noted by the late Winston Churchill, who said: “Trying to tax your way to prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket attempting to lift himself up by its handle”.

Wise words which have stood the test of time.

D S Boyes, Upper Rodley Lane, Leeds