Letters: October 29, 2016

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Fears are not racist

MARTIN and Mark Webb are perhaps a little too quick off the mark in their support of Gary Lineker and their condemnation of what is headlined ‘the gutter press’ (SA 26 October).

What cannot be doubted is the work undertaken by Martin and Mark with Swindon’s Harbour Project, where refugees and asylum seekers are offered regular support and assistance.

However, it has to be acknowledged that the migrants gathering in Calais are not fleeing oppression, they are not in danger of being killed by a dictatorial regime, they are not destined forever to live in squalor and they do not face starvation – they are in France, an open and tolerant leading member of NATO and the EU. A country whose national motto is liberty, equality, fraternity.

Images of the young ‘men’ who have recently arrived in the UK tend to suggest that whatever squalor exists in the Jungle it has not affected them one iota – they do not appear to be malnourished, unkempt or in desperate need of medical attention as they play with their mobile phones.

The citizens of Calais may not be the most welcoming of hosts but who can blame them when on a daily basis they evidence behaviour which borders on lawlessness, hardly what they would expect from people who have obtained ‘freedom.’

A London-based politician recently described the UK as racist and the Government as the most racist in more than 40 years – and yet with this claim being trumpeted as fact it would seem that migrants in Calais refuse to claim asylum in France (or indeed any of the other EU countries they have travelled through) and want to come to this country.

To speak against the level of immigration, managed or illegal, is not racist and does not make the commentator less compassionate than those who seek to portray their own virtue by adopting a supposedly high moral tone, all too often cloaked in a veneer of pious, self indulgent hypocrisy.

Gary Lineker is entitled to his views, although I suspect many wish he would keep them for Match of the Day.

DES MORGAN

Caraway Drive, Swindon

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USA migrant obligation

I AGREE that this country should take in refugees, which include children and adults, but not economic migrants.

But I do have a concern about there being sufficient housing and schools and medical facilities etc as we are a small, over populated island.

What really does annoy me however, is that many European countries are also taking in refugees but the nation that orchestrated the wars and uses other western nations to help them fight under the guise of NATO, is not taking any in.

The USA is responsible for all of the trouble that is currently happening in Middle Eastern countries, as well as orchestrating the coup in Kiev, so why is it not taking responsibility for the refugee crisis that it has primarily caused as the ring leader of other western nations, including ours?

And why are the EU countries, or the UK not asking the same question, and demanding some answers from across the pond?

The US refers to itself as the Land Of The Free and also has thousands of acres going begging, unlike our own overcrowded country.

Wouldn’t it be nice to witness a few daily flights of giant US Air force C17 Globe Master aircraft ferrying these poor displaced people to the land of the American dream as some sort of compensation for destroying their homelands?

Finally, Obama has gone on the record as saying that his country is exceptional.

So may I suggest that they do something very exceptional indeed by taking in their fair share of refugees that they did so very much to create as well as causing the havoc and destruction of infrastructure in these people’s homelands.

They could actually re-home the lot of them.

Surely the onus is upon them to do so, and not to sit back and watch as Europe and this country try to sort out the mess, that has been caused by their attempts at subversion and regime change in the countries that these people have been forced to flee from.

G A WOODWARD

Nelson Street

Swindon

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Third runway is a fiasco

WHAT a long, drawn-out shambles this third runway proposal has become.

I blame this fiasco entirely upon the inept previous Prime Minister and his sleazy chums in the financial sector in the City of London.

It was apparent as far back as 2011 that the Tories were not going to entertain any other site except Heathrow.

What needs thorough investigation is the way a perfectly reasonable third option was deliberately sidelined, and which would have been a better solution.

What I find distasteful today is why was there such a rush to close Filton Airfield, which had the road and rail infrastructure already in place?

The residents of Richmond should now vent their anger on the dishonest Tories, and vote in the UKIP Candidate who will bring more openness and honesty to Westminster

COUN PHILIP WINTER (UKIP)

Southmead Road Filton, Gloucestershire

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UKIP is still necessary

THE country voted to leave the EU on June 23 but, despite the successful EU referendum result, UKIP continues to have an important role to play in British politics.

Swindon UKIP branch is still active and is against the library closures and against the car parking charges at Coate Water and Lydiard Park.

The local branch is also very worried by the way young people are disadvantaged by the housing shortage and believes that the only way forward is to have a huge council house building programme to support the young generation.

UKIP is the party of the working class and it is still needed to fight the ruling elite and get a good deal for the poorest people in Britain.

TERRY HAYWARD

Burnham Road, Swindon