Age-old argument
Sir: Dr Wilkinson (Letters, 8 February) makes the sarcastic statement: 'The fact that those in relative poverty have increased from about 6 per cent of the pop- ulation in the early 1950s to around 30 per cent now will not of course have had any effect on health . . Of course it has! And it has been wholly beneficial. At about the same time that his article on the effect of income distribution on life expectancy appeared in the British Medical Journal, the Daily Telegraph carried an article on the 40th anniversary of Her Majesty's accession where it was stated that in the first year of her reign she sent birthday telegrams to 200 people on their 100th birthday and to ten people who had reached 105. Last year the number receiving a telegram on their 100th birthday was 2,227 and those on 105 (Dr Wilkinson will not believe it, of course) received 262.
To paraphrase his next sentence, 'Any- way, who cares what the surveys show?'
R. G. L. Bound
133 Hacton Lane, Upminster, Essex
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