CONGRATULATIONS on your front page headliner of October 4 highlighting the inflation-busting pay increases awarded to Oxfordshire NHS chief executives.

Scrutinising the three photos of the beneficiaries underneath, it struck home the similarity of each one. They all bore the same bland, smug, self-satisfied facial features reminiscent of Animal Farm.

The maxim is all NHS staff are equal in that they have to suffer a three-year pay freeze but NHS top executives are more equal than others.

JOHN MACKIE, Hendred Street, Cowley, Oxford