Biting back

Anyone seeking to find an explanation for Brexit and Donald Trump need look no further than Joyce Mcmillan’s Scotsman article (Perspective, 10 August). It is a prime example of the intellectual arrogance and liberal self-regard common of the metropolitan elite, and which has angered so many of her fellow Britons.

The main thrust of her thinking follows the tradition of Bill Clinton’s reference to Trump supporters as “deplorables”, David Cameron’s to UKIP voters as “closet racists” and Gordon Brown’s dismissal of “a bigoted woman”. In a democracy the people can bite back, and Clinton et al paid the price of writing off large chunks of the electorate as bigoted.

Still, much as Mcmillan may revile Trump, her article illustrates an enthusiastic adoption of his practice of “verbal inexactitude” with reference to immigrants contributing more to the economy than they cost – I would dearly like to see her evidence that mass immigration significantly increases GDP per head; or her claim that immigrants do not put additional pressure on public services.

She should tell that to the teachers in one of my local schools who face the challenge of more than 28 languages being spoken by their pupils, while having to use temporary classrooms to cope with the volume of immigrant children.

RONALD MCGRATH Langley Way, Watford