DR N. D. Driver's letter (Vast majority of people support Helston MP, 14 Jan) is a curious response to mine of 7 January. Dr Driver writes that I "smear" Mr George's character, which is not the case. My previous letter merely reports, entirely accurately, that Mr George has claimed and received £1,155,000 in salary and expenses over the last five years; in fact in 2002/03 Mr George claimed so much money that he came eighth in the league table of all 659 MPs. I went on to ask if Mr George should be accused of hypocrisy for attacking business leaders for taking huge bonuses, after the MP had himself received over a million pounds. Everyone in the St Ives constituency has a right to know how much our MP costs; a sentiment that I had perhaps naively assumed would be shared by all, regardless of political affiliation.

Dr Driver writes that Mr George "is prepared to stand up and be counted on issues" citing Mr George's support of the UN's Millennium Development Goals; but what has Mr Andrew George actually done to further these goals, other than repeatedly state his support? Mr George is a backbencher in the third party at Westminster and while our MP's altruism is commendable, his ability to eradicate global suffering, poverty, hunger and illness is very limited indeed. Mr George's support for the goals is also hardly exceptional, both Labour and the Conservatives are committed to them, as are the 188 other nations who adopted it. Mr George is very fortunate to have supporters like Dr Driver.

Stephen Sobey St. Michael's Cottage Churchtown Mullion