I HAVE great sympathy for the disgraceful treatment of the staff at the Range Warehouse in Mitcheldean, but I can't say that I am overly surprised.

In the Forest over the years we have witnessed many large profitable national and international companies up sticks and move to where they believe they can squeeze out a bit of extra profit without the slightest regret or conscience about the devastating consequences for the workers that they leave behind in dire straits.

I understand that many of the workforce include once highly-qualified staff at Rank Xerox, who now face casting about for a fair day's work for a fair day's pay. But all the staff are victims of that old-established brutal exploitative system of non-responsible Capitalism still practiced, that maximizes profit and depresses living standards worldwide.

I do hope that they all find decent, satisfying jobs that will pay a living wage rather than the minimum wage, for the sake of their families and the local economy.

Where has our local MP been involved in fighting for their livelihoods I would like to ask?

I may be wrong, but I've heard and read nothing of his contribution to the efforts to keep the warehouse where it is.

Too busy learning the art of the pleasures of Soho table dancing and holding down his lucrative Westminster Ministerial job, I dame.

John Belcher

Joyford