I agree with all you say Iains. But you and I are at a bit of an advantage, since we've seen with our own eyes Third World poverty, and it's extremely shocking for a Westerner to witness. People actually collapse and die in the street of disease and hunger, and their corpses start to rot in the heat before the 'pompiers' roll up to collect them.

That ranking of infant mortality is most interesting. Out of the first 40 countries listed, nearly all are in Africa. And many of those nations have sufficient resources to feed their populations if their economies were better managed.

Now I wonder if exactly the same thing could be said of UK families who are struggling? I can already hear the groans, but my parents managed on an absolute pittance just after the War. My mother knew how to cook very very cheap meals and to make clothes for us all on her sewing-machine and by endless knitting, using old clothes cut down and unravelling the wool from old cardigans etc. We had very little in the way of possessions. Jumble sales were haunted by all the families in our area. I can truthfully say we WERE poor, but always clean, adequately fed and clothed.

If today's families could be taught to manage like that, I wonder if things would be better for the children?