Letter: Childcare tax breaks

HARRIET HARMAN's response (19 February) to your campaign is very disappointing. Instead of allowing us to spend our own money on whatever childcare arrangement we deem suitable, she is offering a national childcare strategy devised by politicians and implemented by "childcare workers".

For families with several small children, such as mine, no institutionalised childcare arrangement can be suitable. Having someone live-in has proved a workable solution for us, although I have to spend half of my income on childcare. My husband's income is nearly all spent on the mortgage (we pay pounds 120 more since Labour came to power), which makes it imperative for me to work.

The solution put forward by The Independent has the advantage that it allows people to devise their own childcare strategy whether it means nurseries, neighbourhood childminding or nannies from Australia, rather than rely on Nanny Harman to do it for them.

MARIANNE OGUBOYE

London SW19

ALASTAIR MEEKS (letter, 20 February) displays an all-too-common form of shortsightedness. If he plans to draw a pension of any kind, it will be other people's children who support him after his retirement.

SAIRA SALIMI

London W10