• MY grandfather, aunt (who brought me up) and I were listening to the wireless (radio) and a speech by the prime minister.

In the speech he stated that we have banished poverty from this land. My granddad said to me, “What did he say?’’

I replied: “He said we have banished poverty from this land.’’

“Yes, unfortunately it has taken refuge in our house.’’

That “joke” comes from a poem in a Penguin paperback entitled Poems from the Sanskrit.

BOB DAVENPORT, WC1