Letter: Rustic idyll

Sir: Following your report on the Heart of Wales train line, Kate Jones from Llanwrtyd Wells wrote explaining how she is forced to travel to work by car (letter, 4 May).

She stated that the alternative was to catch the 06:39 train in the morning, returning on the 19:02. I was initially perplexed by this: she describes a timetable familiar to myself and no doubt many of your readers.

Then the penny dropped. Kate Jones lives in the countryside. In Wales. No doubt decades of living in a community used to receiving vast sums of money from the Common Agricultural Policy, rural development grants and many other handouts has led to her and her neighbours living a feather- bedded existence, immune to the pressures and demands that the majority of us have to endure.

As Wales takes its first steps towards self-government, it will be interesting to see if the Welsh are willing to continue to subsidise such an idyllic life-style.

MARK BLACKMAN

London SE14