IN last week’s Guardian A Edwards latest rant includes more statements with no basis in fact.

Opinion polls, especially those favouring the ConDems, are misleading and erratic.

Recent polls have shown that, due to Government misinformation, a large section of the public think that £24 in every £100 of benefits is fraudulently claimed. The real figure is 70p in every £100. Polls also show that 29 per cent of people believe that Job Seekers Allowance costs more than pensions. The fact is pensions cost 15 times more than JSA.

I assume these people are getting their information from the same sources as A Edwards or the polls are wrong. Either way the accusation that I am out of touch with public opinion now appears to be a compliment.

Taking the Pope to task, A Edwards then states ‘most people don’t idolise money’. I wouldn’t know about that as I don’t know most people and if I did would never feel the need to speak on their behalf. I believe the Pope was perhaps speaking of people such as George Osborne’s best man whose hedge fund made £3.5 billion using ‘mates rates’ in the recent Royal Mail sell off scandal.

Why A Edwards tries to berate me by using Ed Miliband and Andy Burnham is a mystery as I hold them both in only slightly less contempt than I do Cameron and Osborne. Finally A Edwards quotes the ‘renowned’ Joseph Rowntree Foundation reporting that the gap between rich and poor widened under Labour from 1997. As I’ve said before, in my opinion, New Labour was the best Tory government we’ve ever had so I have no reason to doubt that statement. However I could not find any proof as the JRF website was drowning under reports of the ConDems infamous bedroom tax saying it has left vulnerable tenants struggling to cope, failed to free up homes and instead of saving taxpayers money it is costing them millions.

Graham Brinksman Fearnhead