Dr Anthony Seldon's branding of parents who move house to live near good state schools as "the worst moral hypocrites" is an unjustified slur on the many parents who would never be able to afford the fees at schools like his (Brighton College) but who simply want a good state education for their children.

Other parents have their own objections to private education but don't see why their children should suffer just because successive governments have made such a mess of the state system.

Dr Seldon not only insults these parents but also contradicts the thrust of his argument, when he infers that non-fee paying parents take a less active interest in their children's schooling. Clearly, if they are prepared to endure the privations, financial and otherwise, that moving to a more expensive area can entail for the less well-off, their children's schooling is a priority for them.

Dr Seldon's school is, moreover, the beneficiary of the patchy provision of secondary education in his part of Brighton, as many parents who would not otherwise consider going private, faced with sending their children to a failing (now failed) state school, and unable to move house, opt for Brighton College as the least worst alternative.

-John Helmer, Brighton