DAVID Swain (letter on Sunday, May 15) seems to think that every problem in our economy is down to immigration being out of control. However, I understand that immigrants are net earners and our economy actually benefits from their presence.

He seems to think too that our NHS is overwhelmed by immigrant patients. However, the elder members of our society are well aware of the high number of immigrants helping to run the NHS.

But we do seem to agree on the state of the economy, only, he blames it on the EU and I don’t. Our economy has been in decline for longer than we have been in the EU.

I put the blame on party politics denying the country a long term plan and our politicians’ unsustainable economic policies. Nearly all politicians seek to grow the economy.

But economies cannot go on growing in a finite world. When our politicians realise this and change to a steady state economy things might start to improve and, yes, the same problem exists in Europe. I suspect however Mr Swain is a supporter of Ukip and its “Out” campaign as he complains of Barack Obama speaking up for the “In”.

As Barack Obama said, such important decisions should be taken on the basis of knowledge and we might wish to have knowledge of what his view actually is.

Peter Landsdown

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