SIR – The last few days have seen yet more stories raising concerns about the UK’s open borders policy.

The NHS is under severe financial pressure, yet it can find resources to treat foreign HIV patients, and spend millions on translation services.

The ongoing Qatada saga raises real questions about who we should let in to the country, and who should be allowed to stay.

The Worcester News regularly reports on East European criminals, and just last week featured the case of Piotr Ziobro being sent back to Poland after committing a string of crimes here in Worcester.

And most of all, the hidden levels of unemployment under Labour are coming into the open and growing now, as the crisis deepens.

We never did ‘need’ immigrant labour, and right now, it is becoming obvious that our own people are struggling to find jobs, or get by on their increasingly squeezed wages.

This is why immigration is such a cause of concern for so many people, with opinion polls consistently showing the vast majority of the population to be strongly opposed. And it is also the reason why I strongly disagree with Tim Palmer’s letter (Worcester News March 6) in which he accuses those who take issue with economic migrants of ‘lazy thinking’ and ‘latent racism’.

His defence of mass immigration ignores the fact that having a large supply of cheap labour from abroad is bound to make unemployment here worse, and to keep wages low.

That is what it was designed to do, and it has worked.

Saying that it is fine for people to come here so long as they work and contribute is wrong.

They are taking jobs our own people need.

Then, of course, they have to be housed, in this small, overpopulated country.

Mr Palmer says most foreigners are ‘just the same as anyone else’. Precisely.

There is nothing special about them, they are just extra people, in this already overcrowded island.

The idea that we ‘need’ immigration because our own people are lazy is pretty racist, making ‘latent racism’ a charge that can be levelled just as easily at immigration supporters as by them.

Mr Palmer says we cannot complain about foreign criminals because we have plenty of our own, which of couse we do.

But we have a disproportionate numbers of foreigners in prison, and the fact that we have problems of our own, like any other country, does not mean we should import and deal with others.

I am not arguing for our borders to be hermetically sealed, but we do need to restrict the numbers coming here and the time they are allowed to stay.

And politicians and business people need to recognise that mass immigration is neither particularly necessary or desirable, or without serious downside.

Criticising the opponents of mass immigration is really just shooting the messenger.

STEVE DAVIS
Worcester