I don’t detect a great deal of empathy for the homeless there; you sound more like the former Tory minister George Young who described them as “what you step over when you come out of the opera." Or perhaps you subscribe to the view of Suella Braverman, who referred to homelessness as “a lifestyle choice”? But for a very different view of lifestyle choices, I can’t do better than recommend the supplement with last weekend’s FT. It used to be called How To Spend It but has more recently been coyly rebadged (out of shame? No chance!) as HTSI. It devotes a whole page (below) encouraging customers “to shop for a pigment of your imagination,” including such delights as a pair of wool mix trousers at £1,350, a wool mixed fringe waistcoat at £1,813, a horrible table at €5,500 or, the piece de resistance, a truly hideous Louis Vuitton glass, marble and gold Totem at a mere £22,100. In a way, this page encapsulates what is really wrong with the country here, in which this gross stuff appears effectively alongside people who don’t even have enough to provide somewhere for them to live. So thank you, Timothy, for enabling us to make this comparison of two very different worlds.
Richard Carter ● 512d