Migrant trouble

Further to Joyce McMillan’s argument (Perspective, 24 April), it now has to be accepted that the prospect of a reasonable future in many Middle Eastern and African countries seems so hopeless for many young men and women that they will pay anything and risk everything to reach a country where there is some prospect of a reasonable life but this problem cannot be solved by the mass movement of thousands of people from failed countries to the more successful countries in the western world.

The West has to accept some responsibility for this tragic situation as they did invade Iraq and we offered military help in the removal of Gaddafi in Libya but these countries seemed unable to build more democratic regimes thereafter.

As regards the other impoverished countries in this area, the West has a duty to help but I do not feel it can be held responsible for the catastrophic situation in so many other countries in the Middle East and Africa where the western nations did not interfere. 
 Of course, the West has a moral responsibility to rescue the migrants from drowning and deal with the evil criminal element in this migrant trade but the only long-term solution, as Joyce McMillan says, is a “Marshall Plan” to bring some degree of prosperity to the impoverished countries.

Sadly, this will be a very long-term solution and will certainly not help the present tragic situation. I fear the migrant problem will be with us for some time. 

Hugh M Mackenzie 

Bonnethill Road 

Pitlochry, Perthshire

A TIMELY reminder from Struan Stevenson that those who vote for the Green Party and its “Luddite and Marxist policies” would “send us all back to the dark ages”. (“Why Greens are really the watermelon party”, 25 April).

Two of his points are particularly relevant to the electorate. If they want hundreds of thousands more migrants needing housing, welfare benefits, schools and access to healthcare then vote Green.

The Green proposal for an amnesty for the estimated 750,000 illegal immigrants in the UK is irresponsible since this only attracts yet more illegal immigrants hoping for a future amnesty.

Then there is the Green commitment to a “zero-carbon economy”. This means reliance on the wind turning the subsidised wind turbines since there will be no back-up coal, gas or nuclear.

A zero-carbon economy means no economy since companies will have fled, with their taxation contributions, to countries where there is abundant cheap fossil energy and cheaper labour. Still want to vote Green?

Clark Cross

Springfield Road

Linlithgow, West Lothian