Oh, go on then - I'll bite. Regarding "Paying the price of "progress" and "Demise of a village" (The Argus, October 24), what happened to "market forces", that all-powerful agent for sorting out the private wheat from the public chaff?

What on earth can be achieved by introducing so-called affordable housing for poor local people?

I thought poverty had been eradicated by the evolving introduction of decent, respectable, well-paid, culturally-inclined, country-loving, "real carrots" folk who could and would, under Mrs Thatcher's exhortations, pay the earth to escape from the urban doldrums and preserve the rural way of life with a well-briefed portfolio of investments.

So if there are any really poor people in Ditchling, let them join the other cake-eaters on the local reservations and not spoil the beautiful scenery and generally well-off ambience that permeates Ditching.

Or perhaps - like a Constable painting - we, the public chaff, are only seeing one side of the picture?

Finally, I don't see why the public interest and resources should be used to promote or shore up a rural idyll that prides itself on its independence.

If the publican's daughter finds living over the shop too limiting, there's a whole world of opportunity and challenge out there.

And if you are a low-down, gis-a-job punter, trapped by the unobtainable lifestyles grown up all around you, do try to be grateful and enjoy.

-Ralph Taylor, Southall Avenue, Moulsecoomb