18 OCTOBER 1969, Page 25

A letter to my son

Sir: It would have been more to the point had Simon Raven (11 October) presented his son with a large package of contraceptives, before sending him off with fond father's blessing to sleep with as many girls as he can get so long as he marries none of them.

Still, as young Raven grows into a 'hard- working man', and sees 'women all round us who could not even exist were it not for welfare services and state subsidies', he will at least be free from dad's burning sense of injustice at having to 'pay ever-mounting taxes to keep them and their children out of the gutter'.