Incomers pay way

DAVID Maddox is to be congratulated on his timely piece exposing the hypocritical and objectionable position of the three Westminster parties on immigration. (“Repercussions in Westminster over immigration and Ukip may yet be felt north of the Border”, 26 March.)

His article highlights the fact that such posturings at Westminster reflect a politics alien to people here in Scotland, a point underlined by the introduction of the “bedroom tax”.

Elsewhere in your reports, David Cameron is quoted threatening to refuse immigrants ­access to housing, NHS treatment and welfare, saying the government is “rolling up that red carpet and showing them [immigrants] the door.” (“Immigration figures start to unravel”, 26 March) What utter nonsense is this?

Based on an electoral fear of Ukip, which he seems to group among the “nutters and closet racists”, Cameron ignores the clearest economic facts.

Immigrants are net contributors to the economy of the UK. They create far more wealth and pay far more into the Treasury than they receive in benefits. Moreover, far from “rolling out the red carpet”, as he ludicrously suggests, Britain actually reserves the poorest available housing, the poorest jobs and the lowest wages for those newly arriving here to enrich this country.

It’s time all three Westminster parties stopped pandering to “nutters and closet racists” and started showing how people who come to this country enrich our economy and society. Their scandalous attempts to use ­immigrants as scapegoats for the worst recession in living memory is offensive nonsense.

Colin Fox

Scottish Socialist Party

Edinburgh