Coincidences can be strange. As I mull over my French income tax declaration I coincidentally have Larry King on the CNN satellite channel in the background. And what was his guest, the buffoon Michael Moore - I'm not his greatest fan - going on about? Comparing French taxes to American ones. According to Moore, Americans pay more tax than the French do.

Of course you have to use Moore's own peculiar calculator to come to that conclusion. He factors in the cost of college education that is "free in France", then adds $12,000 a year for medical insurance that the French get "free", and then he counts child care that can cost American families $200 a week but is also "free" in France.

So, comforted by this knowledge, I go back to my tax form and also look at my French pay slips for the last year with all those deducted charges for one thing and another. I think I'll send copies off to Moore so he can point me to where the "free" bits are.

J.M. Barringer, by email