In the season of goodwill, while parables about how there was no room at the inn for Joseph and Mary have been the stuff of nativity plays, all social security help to asylum seekers and refugees will be cut off from January 8.

What a telling indictment of New Labour that £1 billion has been set aside in the Government's contingency fund for the Iraq war and £500 million has been spent helping Jarvis and Co prepare its privatisation bids for the London tube, although the cupboard will be bare when it comes to those from Iraq and Afghanistan who seek refuge here.

Readers may wonder how our Christian Prime Minister can afford money for oil wars and £250,000 for his son's flat but offer only destitution to those who flee from torture and death.

-Tony Greenstein, Brighton and Hove TUC Unemployed Workers' Centre