SIR: To give a better deal to single parents and their children we will take £11 off you to help you. Then we will find you work.

What work?

Even to suggest this without first stating a minimum wage is ludicrous. The sweat-shops paying even under £2 per hour are the rule rather than the exception. Then the icing on the Government cake, we will find people to look after your children. Will these childcarers be qualified, monitored, or is it the case, if you are poor, your children can suffer abuse?

After April, for example, a parent could take up work, and his/her employer could pay low wages and ignore Health and Safety regulations. And then the employee could give notice to finish. Does he/she then lose £11 a week because they have come under the latest Government legislation?

I admire the MPs who have shown their disgust at the attacks on the poor, especially children.

Should they now be censured by the party for having a conscience. No matter how the Government wriggles and prevaricates to lower the standard of living for the one-parent families was not in the manifesto.

I never thought as an old and new Labour member, I would ever have to accuse the party of sophistry.

John S L Evans

Howard Avenue, Deane

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.