I read with interest of our wonderful MP Andrew Smith's fears about Oxford's Littlewoods store closing, and his concern for the 26 staff losing their Jobs (Oxford Mail, August 11). Quite right too.

Will he be as concerned about the 40,000 workers in job centres he intends to sack as head of the Department of Work and Pensions?

Will he be approaching the Secretary of State at the Department of Trade and Industry to find out what measures can be taken to help them? I think not.

Mr Smith fiddles while the whole of the DWP burns. The pension Service is falling around our ears, the computer system of the Child Support Agency makes a 1980s' Amstrad computer look like NASA, and if you are unlucky enough to become unemployed it is taking more than six weeks for someone to start receiving their Jobseeker's Allowance, putting people into debt through crisis loans.

Mr Smith and others should show these hard-working low-paid "servants" some respect.

All three main political parties are using civil servants as a political punchbag for many reasons, to "help pay for an illegal war", to "pay for better schools and hospitals" or just to "cut waste".

When you next have to wait five hours to receive a payment, six weeks for a JSA claim to be set up, four months for a pension book to arrive, ask yourself, didn't we need these essential workers after all! PAUL HARDCASTLE, Upper Road, Kennington