John Lloyd is wrong: there is nothing "right-wing" about support for marriage ("How the left hijacked the family", 27 November). Indeed, traditional family life was the bedrock of ethical socialism. The government's moral relativism on marriage means that it hasn't got a clue whether there is such a thing as society. Anyone who claims to be a progressive in politics must place the interests of children before those of hedonistic adults.

Thinkers on the left are increasingly realising that the key to social inclusion lies in shoring up marriage. It is they who are aghast at the government's family policy; the Tories are delighted. Calling all defenders of marriage "right-wing" is merely an insult designed by people whose own thinking is morally bankrupt to belittle these arguments. Indeed, so eager is Lloyd to dispose of me in this way that he claims I am simultaneously of the "conservative" and "neo-liberal" right. I can't be both. I am, in fact, neither.

Melanie Phillips
London W12

It is all very interesting for John Lloyd to discuss Jack Straw's consultation paper on the family in terms of left, right and "Third Way" politics, but how can he claim that it is "even-handed" in the way it treats families? As he acknowledges, a significant minority of mothers wish to stay at home to look after their children yet these women's needs are completely ignored. For reasons that have been neither explained nor discussed, the last government's war against single mothers living on benefit now seems to have been extended to a war against all housewives and full-time mothers.

If a couple both go out to work, leaving their children with childminders, they can now claim two full sets of personal tax allowances, childcare grants and various other kinds of assistance. If, however, the woman stays at home and looks after the children herself, there are no grants, no benefits (apart from child benefit) and the couple even lose half their income tax allowances. Although the woman has no income, the DSS bans her from receiving any benefits unless the whole family is in abject poverty. As far as the tax and benefits systems are concerned, a woman who adopts the role of housewife does not exist.

Alasdair Beal
Leeds

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