WITH reference to the letter from Mr Cy Roberts (Review November), I should like to make the following points.

Mr Roberts questions the accuracy of John Belcher's use of figures and criticises his 'lack of comparisons'.

In order to do this, Mr Roberts uses no figures of his own but makes sweeping statements about our ex-pats and EU immigrants.

He claims that 'our ex-pats are self-sufficient'. What does this mean? Do we assume that if one of our ex-pats falls ill, they pay for the private treatment available in their adopted country without using the public health system?

He claims that 'EU immigrants coming to this country expect our Welfare State to look after them' and that because they 'work for below minimum wage' they are inflicting lower standards of living on the rest of us. 

Mr Roberts has no statistics or evidence for these blanket accusations. All he is doing is repeating hearsay opinion.

Further points made refer to the contribution of ex-pats to their local economies and immigrants to the UK who 'sponge off the system' and send a 'proportion of their earnings' back home. Yet again, Mr Roberts makes no attempt to provide any evidence.

I also note that apart from his opening paragraph, Mr Roberts refers to Mr John Belcher as 'Belcher'.

Is it too much to expect that, in order to make political points, good manners could still be used?

If your argument is sound and backed up by valid evidence, it should not be necessary  to denigrate anyone with a different point of view.

– Nigel Wright, Soudley.