FURTHER to Mrs Pickerings rather wet and feeble response to my letter I would like to point out the following: 

Firstly, Mrs Pickering seems to be saying that living in a van with dogs (plural) is better than not having a dogs at all. 

Secondly, if the majority of homeless people do turn to alcohol through loneliness and feelings of being unloved one way of addressing this is to have a proper home, which is more likely to lead to a job because employers are more likely to offer employment to those with a proper address, this would then lead to more human contact and thus less feelings of dependency on the state, surely it is a circular argument.

What surprised me about her response was that she seems to be more concerned about the plight of the dogs than Mr Hicks, for example four paragraphs of the letter is devoted to dogs in rescue centres. 

Finally Mrs Pickering has the cheek to question my compassion, if she thinks that living in a squalid van is more preferable than living in a rescue centre perhaps she ought to do a swap with Mr Hicks and then they can compare notes on who is right.

PAUL HUBAND
Cirencester