MR. L O’Bee (Letters July 1) says that I live in two worlds, but, as his condescending statement on Mrs Shillabeer amply demonstrates, he lives in a world long since gone.

He is obviously unaware that this is, amongst other things, the age of gender equality, and if Mrs Shillabeer makes public statements, then I’m sure she can defend them herself.

He reminisces in a euphoric state of bliss about the good old days, and how happy they were.

Oh! Yes they were jolly days, kids going to school with patched clothes, cardboard insoles made by mum in their holey shoes to keep the rain out. Rickets and diphtheria, and many other illnesses, were rife.

However, we were so fortunate; I got my first job at nine years old, scrubbing a shop front in Shirley, carrying the buckets 200 yards and at 7am for six mornings a week for the mind-boggling sum of six pence (old money) for the whole week. This in winter, oh! The sheer joy of it!

Mr L O’Bee also seems confused regarding the reason we fought the last war. Well, just to enlighten him, it was to make the world a better place, and that nations would live in peace and harmony.

Something that at this point in time is questionable, but that was the idea. By sheer paradox, the EU is the epitome of that desire, one that Mr O’Bee’s only contribution to is to smash it. He and his UKIP party are unable to grasp the fact that associations only work if you co-operate.

Beyond exiting the EU, they have no other policies regarding any of the major day-today events governing our lives.

Mr L O’Bee is also wrong in his assumption that my views accord with his on benefits and incomes. The problem is wages are abysmally too low, and in many cases only parttime, a fact supported by information given recently; that in Southampton alone, over 20,000 people in work have to be publicly supported, just to cover essentials. Under UKIP, an extreme right wing party, that can only get worse.

MR DR SMITH, Southampton.