Letter: Witch-hunt

Sir: I am a happily married man with two children aged five and five weeks. Imagine my surprise when I came home to hear from my wife that we nearly had social security knocking on our door concerned about the welfare of our children.

The reason is that my wife and myself are Witches. This became apparent to teachers because our son had been on a visit to a local church and the class had been discussing religious artefacts when he admitted that we have an altar at home. When questioned further he told the teacher of our religious leanings. His teacher made the head of the school aware and when she telephoned the area's religious co-ordinator she was informed that it might be "a case for social services".

By all the gods, the last anti-witchcraft law was repealed in 1953, but 46 years later our children are still regarded as at risk because of the religious beliefs of their parents. We love our children and give them as much support as we are able, and to find that we might be judged unfit to be parents on the grounds of our beliefs is depressing.

We are constantly told that Britain is a multi-cultural society, but when confronted with exponents of its oldest idea of society it seems to recoil in dread.

N J DAVIES

Horley, Surrey