JOHN MacOwan's letter in last week's Review, in reply to my letter pointing out how ludicrous it was to believe UKIP were on the side of the working person was, like many of his leader Nigel Farage's utterances, very amusing and irresponsibly wrong.

He completely misses the point. The letter was not  about me, but about my generation who benefited so much from the caring governments of post-war Britain.

Rather than boasting I had pulled myself up out of the gutter by my bootstraps, I was pointing out that if there had been UKIP-like libertarian governments in Britain after the war who wanted to remove all state involvement and allow the less privileged to go to the wall, I would not have been able, along  with millions of others, to better myself.

Instead, thanks to the vision and compassion of the Labour movement I, like people from all backgrounds, had access to free education and free health care.

Let us not forget that the welfare state that UKIP hates so much has brought  tremendous benefits  to us all.

It is tempting to think that success is just down to one's own hard work and striving, but that would be kidding oneself.

The fact is it is a lottery whether one is born into the slums of Mumbai or, like Nigel Farage, into the privileged entitlement of a London stockbroker's family.

But caring and compassionate  government can help those not born with a silver spoon in their mouths to succeed and improve their lives.

Caring and compassionate are not two words I have ever heard anyone associate with the UKIP leadership!

I don't pretend that the present political parties of the left and centre are perfect and I really do sympathise with the desire to give politicians a bloody nose.

But readers can make up their own mind whether the policies of UKIP  – severely reduced state help, abolition of employment regulations, privatised  education, privatised health care, privatised forests, lower taxes for the rich – are in the best interests of ordinary working people.

Unlike UKIP's leaders, I believe in fairness and equal access to education, health care and justice for  everyone  in the UK, rather than a privileged few. I am sure that is what the vast majority of Foresters want too.

But UKIP, including its local councillors, are prepared to cynically say anything they think you  want to hear to get you to vote for them and their mean-spirited policies. ­

– John French, Brockweir.