MARK STEAD’S excellent article describing the anguish Tracy Cross is experiencing as this Government finally pulls the plug on Remploy indeed highlights this callous coalition now in charge (The Press, June 5).

I knew Tracy well as we worked together at Remploy and know of her calm dedication to her work.

Remploy was once set up by a past caring Government shocked by the way crippled war veterans were treated. War heroes selling matches was not an image the nation could once tolerate. Remploy was just that: it was created to ‘Re-employ’ the disabled back into the working environment.

Although times have changed, I know from bitter experience how difficult it is for the disabled to find work and compete with the able-bodied in the work place, especially when unemployment is at an all time high. All the disabled want anyway is a hand up, not a hand out.

This present regime, however, has its goal and sights: to coldly go where no government dare go before.

Phil Shepherdson, Chantry Close, Woodthorpe, York.