LETTER: The no-passport rule

From Dr Jeremy D Fox

Sir: Chris Patten, Governor of Hong Kong, has recommended that we give British passports to Hong Kong citizens. The Conservative government, which wants to keep down the number of immigrants at all costs, naturally opposes this humane plan. But then what happens? Labour supports the Government and recommends we hand Hong Kong citizens over to the Chinese government without safeguards.

This callous treachery may well be popular with voters who hate foreigners. But what about the rest of us? Labour's decision means that both main parties want us to abandon several million of our citizens, from whom we have been making billions of pounds' profit for more than a century. If both parties abandon principle, what hope for Britain?

Yours faithfully,

Jeremy Fox

University of East Anglia

Norwich

28 September