I SHOULD like to ask, via the Evening Advertiser, if I am alone in finding the huge bias against single people intolerable?

Obvious examples include the council tax. A 25 per cent reduction for single occupancy means, in fact, a 12.5 per cent increase over the amount paid by two wage earners living together, on a per person basis. It should be a 50 per cent reduction to be fair to all.

Then there are hotels which charge a "single room supplement" (for what? their costs are in fact halved).

Single people have to pay for schools, playgrounds and other things subsidised by the council when we don't have children.

Other examples include:

n two for one offers on entrance fees etc (again a 50 per cent reduction for couples);

n food, which is cheaper in large amounts but usually gone past its "use by" date before the single person can finish it;

n the family sized box again we are forced to purchase the smaller, but more expensive options;

n Family Credit, which is paid for from our income tax but of no benefit whatever to singles.

There are countless other examples but I feel the point has been made. A fuss about nothing? Read this again but substitute "ethnic minority" or "gay" for "single".

Please understand I have nothing against people getting married (or whatever) and having 10 children if that's what they want, but why should we have to support their choice of lifestyle, by law in the case of tax?

The census confirmed Swindon is the "capital" of single living. Perhaps the fight for equal rights for single people should start here.

G SCOTT

Okus Road

Swindon