Thank you for highlighting the outrageous attack by a pair of racists in Brighton (The Argus, July 1).

It must have been frightening for the family to be subjected to the chants of those drunks and the two young children must have been absolutely terrified.

This appalling attack was clearly planned and merely needed a few bottles of alcohol to generate enough courage and a special sort of viciousness to target young children.

Despite this, the good news is this sort of racism is, apparently, rare in Brighton and Hove.

Somehow, this sort of criminality seems even worse when, this week, across the country, vast numbers of people are focusing attention on our leaders and how to tackle poverty - itself the legacy of racism.

We need a powerful collective vision if we are to make a difference in the world and prevent the 50,000 poverty-related daily deaths which blight "developing" countries.

This may mean criticising corruption in Africa - which is easy from the comfort and security of the UK, requiring neither courage nor effort.

It is harder to denounce racist thugs at home.

But a society which tolerates such mindless cowardice on its streets will find it too easy to tolerate poverty 10,000 kilometres away.

-Dr Stuart Newton, Peacehaven