IN 25 years of buying The Northern Echo, the most bloodboiling irritation has been the odious Peter Winstanley, who is obsessed with rooting out obscure tit-bits of anti-western information.

Now he attacks Harry Mead over immigration (HAS, Nov 25).

I believe that unemployment is presently around 2.5 million and costs the country £10 bn in annual benefits.

So why are we taking in any immigrants at all?

All politicians agree the need for some reduction in Government spending, so they should now address the logistics of relocation and retraining so as to reduce unemployment amongst those already living in Britain.

Gordon Brown muttered briefly about “creating British jobs for British workers” until it was pointed out that new job creation was roughly equal to the numbers of immigrants arriving.

Devious service sector employers claim that we need impoverished immigrants because they work enthusiastically for the minimum wage. But when their children have been through British schools and universities, I doubt they will want the lowerskill jobs their parents did.

Presumably, Mr Winstanley’s answer is then to take in more and more impoverished immigrants. It the old-style slave trade but without the manacles.

Think back to Remembrance Day, when all politicians praised our military, who have suffered severe losses in establishing and maintaining order in Iraq and Afghanistan.

So why do persons from these countries arrive here claiming asylum from an unsafe homeland? Outrageous.

Finally, I wonder how Mr Winstanley can reconcile our poaching of skilled immigrant doctors and nurses etc when their skills are so desperately needed in their homelands?

Dr David Sparks, Hartlepool.