From asylum seekers to Ulez, our readers from across the county give their weekly take on the biggest issues impacting Kent in their letters to the editor...

Albanians coming over could be working

The 12,000 Albanians, who it appears currently form the majority of asylum seekers, are more likely to be economic migrants but all have to join the long queue of applicants to determine their status.

However, the government has itself just admitted that new, inexperienced and low-paid staff are unable to process complex asylum claims so delaying things even further.

The Office of National Statistics has also shown that despite the delays, the vast majority of claims are genuine, being from war or persecution zones.

As for working, the UK has the longest period of anywhere before refugees can start to work, even in the USA it’s only 150 days.

It is also not about ‘queue jumping’, as it is up to the employer to decide who is the best candidate for the job. Further, with older people over 50 now leaving or not returning to work, there are more vacancies to fill.

Britain needs better jobs not low-paid ones. As Katherine Chapman, director of the Living Wage Foundation recently said, raising just 25% of the low-paid to a real living wage, above the national version, would put £1.7 billion into the economy and “paying the real living wage isn’t just the right thing to do for workers, it’s good for business and the wider local economy too”.

Sadly, it is this government which has made little attempt to invest in decent jobs, nor in transiting to a green industrial base. All such could provide decent jobs for the unemployed and for refugees, even if awaiting their claim decisions.

Ray Duff

What’s so bad about other countries?

I was curious about the letter from Mike Coomber and the desperate migrants who are crossing the channel.

I do not understand why they need to put themselves in harm’s way to get to the UK.

I think if I were to be fleeing a dangerous country, I would be over the moon once I had arrived in a free country and would then claim asylum there straight away. I could then use safe public transport to travel anywhere I am allowed to go.

I don’t think the French, Italian, Spanish and Greek countries are that bad are they? Or am I missing something?

Alan Watling

Long term policy of mass migration

Every now and again someone in high places lets slip and gives the game away. I wondered if those who write in about migration were aware of the comments of the late Peter Sutherland, arch globalist, and one time UN special representative for international migration, who said, “the European Union should be doing its best to undermine our sense of homogeneity and difference from others” (address to House of Lords, October 2012).

Sutherland, like Tony Blair, was an avid supporter of mass migration.

With net migration now at record levels - 504,000 per annum - this is a particularly apt time to mention. Mass migration was never the result of accident, incompetence or misplaced altruism - as sometimes thought - but rather the deliberate policy of successive UK governments. There was never any economic, moral or any other case for; that was just a smokescreen.

And it was all done despite mass public opposition to and umpteen broken promises by politicians. Every party at Westminster is committed to this policy but none has any form of mandate from the British people to do so. Lost control of our borders? Abdication would be a better word.

In 1955, Winston Churchill said immigration was the most important subject facing this country but couldn’t get his ministers to do anything about. Nothing has changed since.

John Helm

Direct action is needed over climate change

Your correspondents are quite right to raise the issue of climate change but criticising those who are prepared to make personal sacrifice to raise the issue is not productive.

Progress for ordinary people has only come when they have taken action, simply relying on so called ‘constitutional means’ leaves control in the hands of those who have power but whose interests are being challenged.

The type of action that is needed is to stop developments like the Lower Thames crossing, which is environmentally damaging, is said to double the traffic coming into Kent and is in conflict with the policies needed to deal with climate change.

Planting trees and solar panels are positive steps to be encouraged but are only part of the solution.

Investment in electric cars is a retrograde step. To provide the materials needed for batteries in order to replace all present cars would cause extreme devastation in parts of the world and is an impossible task.

We have to accept that the era of individual car ownership is no longer acceptable and that a free public transport system designed to meet people’s needs is essential.

To argue that the UK is only responsible for 1% of global emissions ignores the fact that we have been polluting the atmosphere since the beginning of the industrial revolution.

To put it bluntly, the government is twiddling whilst the world burns.

Ralph A. Tebbutt

Be thankful for NHS at all times

Back in March 2020, every Thursday at 8pm many celebrities, influencers, politicians and public figures supported the campaign called Clap for our Carers/NHS. This was a truly inspirational, motivational and heartfelt gesture to recognise not only what the people of the NHS had done but what they were going through during the pandemic.

Over the last few weeks I have seen reports on the news of the public outcry at how our NHS services are failing them, this ranges from people waiting for surgery to waiting for an appointment as well as anything in between. In addition to this there have been interviews with members of the public who have, in their words, been failed by the NHS due to the fact they were unable to receive the service that they expect.

I find myself asking why it is that we only seem to want to support, recognise and understand the pressures and constraints the NHS is under when something happens that affects us as a nation, such as a pandemic. Yet as soon as the people feel that this is over they go back to complaining, chastising and criticising the very same people for letting them down and not providing an adequate service.

Do we truly believe that the workers of the NHS are only heroes and angels in such extreme times such as a global pandemic or should these people be recognised and supported for all that they do all of the time?

If it was not for the goodwill, compassion, commitment, dedication, hard work and pure drive of the people of the NHS where would you or others be in their time of medical need?

I think it is safe to say that people that go in to the healthcare profession and NHS do this to make a difference and help people not for the salary or the working hours.

I for one am thankful daily for what the NHS does, stands for and strives to achieve.

Adam Dodsley

Pollution charge is necessary

We have misused motorised vehicles for so long without considering their impact on the planet or anybody else that, we should welcome the proposed extension(s) of the ultra-low emission zones (ULEZ).

Roy Finch

Political class is worst in history

I used to believe that the political class of the late 1930s, with the honourable exception of Churchill, and his allies, was the worst ever inflicted on these islands, but I am afraid that those with whom we are now burdened exceed even the former for incompetence, selfishness, and ineptitude.

They are incapable of giving a straight answer to a straight question. The vast majority are only interested in advancing their own careers and only seem animated when attacking their supposed political opponents, who actually share the same attitudes.

The government seems unwilling to take any sort of effective action: against the spoilt brats of Extinction Rebellion, as they block our roads; against the large number of illegal immigrants, pressurising an already crumbling infrastructure; or against the lunatics of woke as the latter indoctrinate our younger generations at schools and universities. They wring their hands over the absurdities of the ‘trans’ lobby.

Promises are made, and then deferred, or cancelled altogether, while policies announced which will not be actually acted upon until years into the future. Given the need to secure our own domestic supplies of energy why are we not ignoring the nonsense of net zero, refilling the gas storage areas, introducing fracking, reopening the coal mines and going all out for tidal and nuclear power, rather than leaving our people to shiver during power cuts?

The absurd virtue signalling by these parliamentary pygmies is nauseating, as they fail the people time and time again.

Colin Bullen

'Criticising those who are prepared to make personal sacrifice to raise the issue is not productive...'

Too much being built in county

We certainly don’t need more homes in Kent. There is too much building going on, taking our green spaces.

There are nowhere near enough hospitals, doctors, dentists and schools for our population now. My nearest hospital is a good half an hour ago whereas when I first moved to Kent the nearest hospital was five minutes away!

Kay Holley

Voter ID should be resisted

I’m very concerned about the proposals from government to roll out voter identification at the upcoming local elections.

The professional body which looks after elections, the Association of Electoral Administrators, has raised a number of practical concerns in rolling out this change. It is estimated that 4% of people don’t have the right identification and there is a risk that the other 96% of people either can’t find their identification or indeed forget to take it with them.

I firmly believe that this proposal should be delayed as there is a risk that people will end up losing their democratic right.

Damola Animashaun