Cowardly attack

In answer to the enquiry by a letter writer regarding the Telegraph's article stating Polish prisoners are told to '˜start a new life in Bognor Regis', I imagine this is something of an urban myth which originates not from a Polish prison but more likely from our own green and pleasant shores.
By The Newsroom
Published 11th Sep 2012, 10:09 BST
Updated 7th Jun 2018, 19:23 BST

I have myself heard another urban myth; that the staff in our Polish shops won’t serve British customers.

I have been into a few and I have found the staff friendly and welcoming.

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I would not take rumours of this kind seriously at all, even if they were read in the Telegraph; but even if this were absolutely true, I think repeating it in print is no more than a cowardly form of racial abuse.

I am surprised the Observer printed the letter.

I believe in freedom of speech, but there are laws to protect our ethnic minorities from racist attacks, even feeble ones such as this one.

With regards to the suggestion about the answer to the perceived problem of having ‘all and sundry’ here, suggesting the British sail off to ‘a new island with a kind and balmy climate’ – did we not already do that when we sailed over to India, Africa, America etc, stuck a flag in the ground and said: “This place is ours now because we have more guns than you”?

We live in a multicultural world.

For every person of ethnic minority here, there will be a Brit out there somewhere. I like that.

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I also admire the way the people in the countries we simply took have been big enough to forgive us and put our empire-building past, where it belongs.

I hope people are not so hopelessly blinkered they cannot have a change of heart.

I look forward to the day we can put this kind of thinly-veiled racism behind us, too.

Kim Davis

Chichester Road, Bognor Regis

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