Sir – Philip Bird, (‘I did not miss the point, Letters, July 23), seems to be an idealist, and like all ideals, they sound very good but are not practical.

He persists that I was point-scoring because I said that if I scored, all well and good. That is not to say that I set out with that intention, as he infers.

I still state that he has missed the point, as he is quite right that our poor are rich compared to the poorest in other countries, but what has that got to do with it?

We cannot bring all the world’s poorest up to our standard just by giving our money away, an idealist attitude.

He also makes the point that we spend money we do not have on many things, but this alters nothing. It does not make it any more right to continue to do it when our own finances are in the state that they are, another idealist attitude.

The situation is simple, we do not have the spare funds, so to give money away at this time is sheer stupidity.

A G Goldsbrough, Leeds Road, Ilkley