Parental care

Ilona McDowell (Letters, 1 ­November) rightly asks us to value child care. Care costs for babies and young children deter many parents from working and prevent some prospective ­parents from having as many children as they might wish.

Some amelioration of this might be achieved if parents were allowed to set child-care costs against their income for tax purposes.

UK governments have set their face against this and the present form of devolution does not allow the Scottish Government to do so.

It is noteworthy that our Scandinavian neighbours expect both parents, where couples have children, to wish to and to be able to do paid work.

To facilitate this, they ensure that adequate child care is ­universally available and affordable. This appears impossible to achieve in a “devolved” Scotland but would be possible with ­independence.

David Stevenson

Blacket Place

Edinburgh