Letter: Immigrants have helped nation – but we must have more control

If that small business takes in a third equal partner with a view to increasing its turnover, and as a result the annual profit increases to £24,000, we can claim that it has successfully increased in size by 20 per cent.

Doubles all round! (except that each equal partner now only receives £8,000 per annum – in addition to which some of the partners are a lot more equal than others).

This is in simplified terms what has been happening in this country over the last two decades. Our economy has certainly grown (largely by borrowing – often to meet the repayments of previous borrowing) but the increasing number of partners has, through uncontrolled immigration, absorbed any benefits from the growth of the economy. It is vital, therefore, if we are to avoid the benefits of Greek-style economic development, that whatever it costs we control our borders.

This does not mean prohibiting immigration from abroad. We have benefited tremendously from Japanese management and computer skills in our car industry, and Polish building skills in our construction industry, to take just two examples, and there must be few people in this country who begrudge what we have paid for them. But who comes in must be decided by our elected government representatives, and not by some Kafkaesque bureaucracy in Brussels that is completely out of touch with the traditions and aspirations of the people already in this country.

It is true that our economy may be in for a bumpy ride over the next year or so, but we have weathered those before under Wilson, Thatcher and Major and come through unscathed, and I suspect that if Deutsche Bank does a Lehmann before Christmas the EU may have more pressing worries to concentrate on than punishing the UK for Brexit.

David Burton, Wellington

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