THE RECENT Argus editorial dated 2/10/13 should be applauded. The rhetoric used at this year’s annual Conservative Party Conference was a disgrace. A classic example of this was during the debates on welfare and the long-term unemployed, when politicians such as David Cameron, Osborne, and Duncan Smith used rhetoric like ‘benefit scroungers’, ‘workshy’, ‘lazy’ and ‘benefits cheats’.

Such language was not just upsetting, but plain divisive. These buzz words used to appease the conference faithful were also highlighted in the more right-wing popular newspapers to an even greater extent.

This kind of language is just further splitting the divide between the haves and the have-nots, and those in work and those who are not and on benefits in society. Conservative politicians seem to be using the old historical rhetoric of to ‘divide and conquer’. I fully understand that something must be done about the spiralling welfare bill and helping the long-term unemployed back into work, but to use such emotive language for an extremely sensitive subject is not the way to go about it. This kind of language is more similar to 1930s Nazi Germany and the devastating effect it had on stigmatising the Jewish population.

Wayne Thomas Monmouth Walk Markham