Letter: First priority for all parents should be to look after their children

Sir: Let me see if I have understood this: if I go to work and my wife stays at home to look after our children (an arrangement with which we are both happy), we lose our child benefit and have it replaced with childcare vouchers (report and leading article, 4 August). We can then use these to pay someone to look after our children during the day - as long as that someone is not their own mother.

Hmm; my wife is less likely to be free to look after our own children since she might be forced to find unwanted paid employment due to having no child benefit. Perhaps that's what some people want: force more mothers out to work, willing or otherwise - and, get this, tax their husbands (among others) to pay for the necessary child care]

Why doesn't the state have done with it all and simply hike up taxes to finance a compulsory scheme for all children to be looked after by people other than their parents?

Yours sincerely,

A. G. BRIGHT

London, E6