Immigrants pay

Les Reid (Letters, 18 July) spends a lot of time in his letter describing the costs to society of older people, culminating in a suggestion that we adopt a form of eugenics in order to provide a “quick voluntary exit” for those elderly people whose faculties have failed. Putting to one side how someone whose faculties have failed will be in a position to make an informed and voluntary decision, Mr Reid does not touch on the point raised by Judith Gillespie regarding tax revenues.

Lord knows, thanks to Gordon Brown, a great many of us in receipt of a state pension (regardless of the fact we have earned it through more than 30 years paying national insurance) are paying taxes on it. However, the fact is that young, skilled immigrants are not only essential to many of our industries, they are contributing proportionately more to the country’s tax revenues.

GILL TURNER Derby Street, Edinburgh