REGRETTABLY the current refugee/migrant/economic migrant/asylum seeker (delete according to preference) crisis and debate has become somewhat tarnished by wild statements from both the liberal left (who believe that everyone thinks like them), and the wildly paranoid anti-EU right (who know that everyone thinks like them).

Unfortunately, I for one, don’t think like either of them, which I am sure will come as no surprise to anybody who reads this paper.

As the adage goes – if the left wing and the right wing don’t flap together the bird generally falls on its beak.

I would suggest that the bird has generally become flightless if not deceased, and partisan divisions into left and right are now totally obsolete.

While I am sure that everyone has heartfelt sympathy for true refugees, fleeing from the horrors that refugees usually tend to flee from, I fail to see how the UK and the EU can accommodate all those wishing to seek sanctuary without causing social unrest amongst the indigenous population, who are already suffering from austerities forced upon them by those who claim to know better.

Ian Martin

Rodborough