Letter: The nuclear family just cannot cope

Sir: The notorious Vichy government of 1940s France replaced "Liberty, Equality and Fraternity" on its coinage with "Work, Country, Family". This is enough to suggest to me that the three latter "values" are the last refuge of bankrupt political scoundrels and I, at least, refuse to bow to any of these false gods.

We need fewer "family values" not more. Even the churches have tried to exclude non-family people by going over to "family services" at which widows, divorcees and the footloose young feel increasingly unwelcome.

Many families are nothing better than successful predatory gangs, with their multi-cars, multi-holidays and multi-homes, skulking behind their burglar alarms as if in threatened fortresses.

The Government's campaigns against youth benefits, one-parent "families" and potential refugees speak for themselves: unless one can exhibit a successful two- or three-child family one can expect to be marginalised.

E TURNBULL

Gosforth, Tyne and Wear