Poverty is getting a new international definition. Folk with incomes less than $1.90 per day will reportedly now be classed as in poverty; formerly the threshold was $1.25 per day. The UK's standard has been a threshold of 60 per cent of median income, about £15000-£18000 per annum varying according to the number of folk and children in a household.

It follows that, on the daily definition, no one in Britain actually suffers from poverty; indeed, for global comparisons for any country it's entirely relative to the society in which their citizens live and their expectations.

Better definitions are needed, perhaps linked to the general availability of the full range of educational, health and housing facilities at a high level, and to early years support for children's development, as has often been suggested. Holyrood's frequent highlighting of the poverty at the extreme edge of our society thus needs fleshed out, even to considering how poorer folk should get closer to the spending patterns of the better off, even to asking why they shouldn't smoke and drink as much too, for example.

Joe Darby, Glenburn, St Martins Mill,

Cullicudden,

Dingwall.