'BUMS' IN SCOTLAND TOO

Dear Editor,

Re: Bums Prefer Ocean Views (B.c. Views, Sept. 7).

I have just returned from a two-week holiday visiting my family, most
of whom emigrated to B.C. around 50 years ago.

I now have two aunts, three cousins and their extended families
living in Maple Ridge, and I always receive a warm welcome.

I congratulate you on your article, which I read on the internet.

Here in Scotland we have the same problems, with the so-called
"homeless drug addicts," and we also have the same bleeding heart
politicians and social workers with their schemes, projects and
solutions to the problems of crime, illegal squatting on private
property and vandalism caused by these people.

Throwing public money at them, giving them sympathy, free needles and
places to inject is all futile.

I know -- I'm a civil servant in the Department of Work and Pensions,
and the word "work" is simply not in their vocabulary.

We have them here too: people who would rather commit suicide rather
than do one day's honest hard work in their natural lives.

And why should they do more when our government and its agencies give
them welfare, so-called community care grants and everything they
need to lead a very, very comfortable life, all at the taxpayers' expense?

We live in crazy times, and with increasingly crazy liberal
governments not only tolerating these parasites in our midst but
encouraging them, things will never change.

Your article was accurate, not only describing the junkie issue in
Canada, but throughout the Western world.

Thank you.

Thomas Toye

Paisley, Scotland