SIR, What a sad, depressing, small minded, nasty and mean letter from Jason Tyszko ('Beggars a Big Issue in Peebles’).

He calls for police to 'move these people on’ and describes beggars as 'a concern which has appeared on our lovely high street’ and talks about 'the beginning of the end’ 'completely unacceptable’ and so on.

It saddens me that these ignorant and vitriolic opinions exist.

I would ask Mr Tyszko to consider two things: a) Why do we live in a society where there is an obscene and growing discrepancy between the rich and the poor? What is he doing to remedy this?

And b) The feelings of the human being involved - what might they have felt if they had read that obnoxious letter?

I am, etc.

Lawrence Alexander High Road Galashiels