Pressure on public services from immigration

SIR – Ruth Davidson’s contribution to the debate on immigration (Comment, August 8) left a lot to be desired.

We might all agree that immigrants make a positive contribution to the economy; that the UK’S 8.6 million immigrants, “who represent a huge number of voters”, need to be valued; that we have an ageing population to support (immigrants, by the way, also grow old); and that overseas students could be excluded from the immigration statistics. However, this is all just one side of the coin. The other side is the huge and growing pressure on public services: schools, surgeries and infrastructure.

The Scottish Conservative leader skates over this in her article. Professor Alan Sked

London School of Economics

SIR – Ruth Davidson concedes that we need to talk about immigration “in a mature way”. However, she goes on to label certain people as part of the “‘Britain’s full-up’ brigade”.

No one in government asked the people of this country if they were agreeable to mass immigration and it is now too late to have a mature conversation with the public on this issue. Jean Finnie

Edinburgh

SIR – Ruth Davidson is on the right track. An immigrant is someone who comes to a country and settles, with a legal right of abode. It’s about time we stopped calling students and temporary workers immigrants.

When we leave the EU, we can allow whoever we like into the country under student and work visas. What is all the fuss about?

Michael A St Clair-george

Rye, East Sussex