SIR - It seems bizarre in the extreme that independent schools should be classified as charities, setting them alongside such good causes as the RNLI, Oxfam and others (T&A, January 23).

These schools are merely retail education businesses', trading on the excess disposable wealth (and sometimes, paranoia) of the aspiring middle-classes, seeking to give their precious little Tarquins and Arabellas a head-start in the world.

Does that make me sound like a militant, class-war leftie?

Well, there's another side to this story. In Bradford alone, two independent schools save the Government around £15m every year, which it would otherwise need to spend teaching those same children in state secondary schools.

Any meagre benefit currently gained from their charitable status pales into insignificance when set against that huge annual saving nationwide.

If there were to be any fairness at all, then any parents (or grandparents) paying independent school fees should be entitled to Income Tax relief on those sums, to reflect just a small fraction of the huge saving the Government makes every year.

Does that now make me sound like a raving, right-wing Tory?

Like me, this crazy system is unbalanced and needs to be seen in the round.

Graham Hoyle, Kirkbourne Grove, Baildon