Good ideas about how to solve immigration are too little, too late

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A young couple painted as EU flags, protest outside Downing Street against the United Kingdom's decision to leave the EU following the referendum in London, United Kingdom (Getty)

Yet again Denis MacShane treats us to a heady combination of brilliant insight and complete error. Naturally he is right to worry about “hard Brexit”, though we cannot tell at this stage whether the Government is slipping towards it. A simplified but not unreasonable analysis of our referendum decision, specifically in England, must reflect the sense of over-population and public service strain that concerns many, and not just those who are less well off. So MacShane is also right to identify internal labour market policy and other mistakes that could still be corrected, for example more apprenticeships for our own young people.

There are indeed many ways to control EU immigration, and the negative perception of it, by internal means. Identity cards would have helped. External means could also have been better employed, over decades, to control illegal immigration from outside the EU, one of the many ghosts in the room during the EU debate. Extensive investment in housing and communities would have created a more confident and stable society.

Sadly MacShane's policy proposals are excellent but way too little, way too late. The damage is done and the European dream seems terribly weakened in England. He should reconsider his current stance that the disaster of “hard Brexit” can only be avoided by accepting completely open borders, and that there is no scope to negotiate on how the EU “four freedoms” apply to a post-Brexit UK.

John Gemmell
Birmingham

Even if EU residents are claiming Job Seeker’s Allowance or any other benefit, they are already banned from accessing Housing Benefit. In effect this means they have no access to accommodation in hostels for the homeless. They are forced to use private landlords, so their costs are far higher than other unemployed people.

I manage one such hostel in Birmingham and we have not been able to accommodate any EU resident for months. It all comes down to cost. We also have a doctors surgery opposite our office and we cannot get them at accept any homeless person as a patient.

Name and address supplied

Trust is critical in every aspect of our lives, and surely should be a fundamental of the relationship between our political leaders and the public at large. As we start 2017, all the signs are that, in Scotland, Nicola Sturgeon will continue to work for another independence referendum off the back of the Brexit result. The alternative EU plans that she has tabled knowingly make proposals that neither the UK nor the EU can agree on, ensuring that an independence referendum will eventually be the only option left on the nationalist table.

The problem with that is, of course, that many of those EU Remain voters that Nicola Sturgeon claims to speak for would be firmly in the UK camp if forced to make that choice and even some of the SNP’s own support are not convinced by the EU’s ever closer union project.

Keith Howell
Scottish Borders

A fascinating struggle is about to commence: the renowned, ponderous, initiative-burying, procedure-bound civil service juggernaut confronts the intricately complex Brexit “programme” of dismantling and replacing 40 years of European legislation. It’s worth relishing and analysing for future generations.

Mike Bor
London W2

Theresa May delivers us better political leadership, better compassion for each other, better love for us all, and the full exposure of Nigel Farage and all his friends for what they are. Now we want proportional representation, prosecution of lying politicians and votes for 16 year olds. We want her to be responsible for what she tells us. “Post truth” is a lie. Welcome to a new truth.

John Sinclair
Pocklington, East Riding

The case for Kurdistan

A fully independent Kurdistan covering territory currently within Syrian, Turkish, Iranian, Armenian and Iraqi territory would be an overwhelmingly positive development in the region. The West’s failure to deliver or even contemplate this is incomprehensible.

It would establish a settled and potentially very wealthy state in a region notorious for perennial turmoil; eliminate fighting in three other countries; provide a refuge for those fleeing uncongenial regimes; and be an ally of the west, which would reduce the unhealthy western preoccupation with sustaining a relationship with Israel at any cost. Western involvement in the area has been harmful for centuries. It is time to start doing the right thing.

Steve Ford
Address withheld

Baby boxes won’t work alone

On the face of it the baby box offer looks like a good idea. There are, though, a couple of problems associated with it. First, in Finland, where the scheme originated many decades ago, the box is merely one element in an integrated mother and child welfare package. Attending antenatal classes is a condition of expectant mothers receiving the box, and there are 16 different health checks on the expectant mother. There is also a cash alternative to the box. The box itself is not a panacea that can eliminate infant mortality.

Second, in what the Scottish government routinely refers to as “Tory austerity”, how can it be appropriate to give baby boxes to all expectant mothers, regardless of their income? The answer is, of course, that this is another freebie – like free prescriptions and university tuition – which is designed to make better off Scots feel that there is something in it for them.

I wonder whether that is how they will respond or whether, after an interval, we will find the contents of the boxes, and even the boxes themselves, clogging up eBay and charity shops.

Jill Stephenson
Edinburgh

Kennedy was no political master

Hamish McRae writes of Kennedy’s “masterly handling” of the Cuban missile crisis. Masterly handling, my eye. Oh how I tire of this old lie which seems to pop up everywhere these days. Read Seymour Hersh’s Dark Side of Camelot, a book by one of the very few US investigative journalists with a modicum of objectivity. Kennedy had a hot line to Krushchev, probably not known about then and not mentioned subsequently. In response to the US stationing missiles right on the Russian border with Turkey, Krushchev responded by doing exactly the same to the US. Of course, the US was perfectly entitled to station its missiles wherever it wanted; after all, Russia was the enemy. That the USSR did the same was an outrageous attack on US security. The consequences of this mutual sabre-rattling were that Krushchev withdrew his missiles and, very quietly and unreported, the US withdrew its missiles a short while later.

Terence Hollingworth
Blagnac, France

Honourable intentions

I, too, rather wished that Andy Murray, whom I admire enormously, had not been given a knighthood. The entire Honours system is anachronistic, much abused and deeply discredited. But it was inevitable that he would be “damned if he did, damned if he didn't” accept the (dubious) honour. He is criticised in for accepting, but had he not, I'm sure the criticism would have been even more strident.

The best option, which seems to be the one he is taking, is to graciously accept the honour but never use the title. (He has already requested that it is not to be used by the Wimbledon organisers.) That way he won't offend the Establishment, but will retain his dignity as a very private person.

Katherine Scholfield
London W8

Family fortunes

It is interesting that Benedict Cumberbatch and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle share John O’Gaunt as a common ancestor, but perhaps not such a coincidence when the statistics are considered. Each of us has two parents, four grandparents, eight great grandparents and so on, doubling the number of our ancestors for each generation we go back. By the time we go back 20 generations (say about 600 years) we each have more than a million ancestors (1,048,576 to be precise). As the population of England is estimated to have been only about 2 million. In the year 1400, any two people whose families have lived predominantly in England during that period have quite a high probability of sharing a common ancestor.

Dr John Coppendale
Cambridge

Cut price

My reaction to the news of Tesco’s equalising the cost of shaving equipment for men and women is this: when will be offered a universal price for men’s and women’s shoes?

Rev Richard James
​Harrogate