LETTER: Rational debate and policy change

It is a shame that Mr Rickerd, in his imaginative letter last week, chose to attack a parody vision of UKIP, rather than actually addressing the two issues I raised. I wonder why? The issues were theft of an election poster and, more seriously, the implied suppression of views you don’t agree with. In short, anti-democratic bigotry.

He suggests that, for information on the benefits of (presumably unlimited) immigration, we should contact the ‘major’ political parties. I have to tell him that many people have been doing so for the last ten years, and have been met with either dead silence or a chorus of screams of ‘racism’. It is only UKIP’s persistence and focus on the consequences of this policy that have brought about some rational debate (and rapid policy shifts from the ‘major’ parties) on the issue. No one disputes the benefit of controlled immigration, but this is forbidden by our membership of the EU. It is the uncontrolled version that is the growing problem, particularly in areas of the country that are not as affluent as this one.

As for Mr Rickerd’s final paragraph, words fail me... Personally I’m happy to accept the verdict of the voters in a week or so’s time.

PATRICK DEARSLEY

Northlands Road, Warnham