IT ought to be common knowledge that money circulates. Yet from what I can gather, it is either not known, or ignored, or denied for political reasons.

Much Tory propaganda exploits this ignorance by, for instance, implying that welfare benefits damage the economy by reducing the amount of money available to the private sector in order to “create wealth”.

The truth is that welfare recipients spend their money on what the rest of us spend it on – food and fuel. They may get an allowance for rent and a reduced council tax but it all ends up back in the system. The money doesn’t go down a black hole.

Neither did all that money that the Labour Government is supposed to have spent.

GL SAMSON (Mr), Preston Road, Abingdon