Oh David, as a journalist, you are incredibly naive. Yes, we need the "vision thing", but people are scared. We need politicians who can grab the moment and articulate what is required - part of what is required is to deal with our porous borders - we do live after all in a small, overcrowded, congested island. The discredited asylum system needs to be sorted out for a start - it has become a vehicle for economic migration, when it should be about supporting desperate refugees in their regions of origin. There needs to be some reality in this debate, or the real nasties will take over.

Richard Marriott, Worcester, England

Just a plain thank you David as it seems that a forward progressive thinking country is something that most people cannot abide by. Either the left or right just want to scare the majority of us to go back to the dim and distant past. Genreally, people enjoy living in this country, albiet that we all have up and downs about our lot. It feels as if all the optimists have been taken to the back of the room and told to sit down and be quiet. That cannot be allowed to happen.

Thomas Goss, Droitwich Spa,

A bit unfair, given the fact that David Cameron hasn't even made his keynote speech yet.

OK, Gordon Brown seems determined to go down as the (hopefully shortest-serving) Prime Minister who took his party a whole three squares to the right in one leap, like some crazed old Boot in Monopoly. But Cameron is actually creating a party which is both liberal and hopeful (and gets into regular trouble with his "core supporters" for doing so).

So, vilify Brown if you want (please do), but don't weaken your credibility by lacking the courage to be seen (for once) to be attacking only Labour.

A Cooper, Nottingham, UK

Was there any need to refer to a child as a 'Junior Ku Klux Klan member?

Carol, London, UK,

Interesting that Aaronovitch should use Fiji in his muddled pro Immigrant witterings. Fiji illustrates quite nicely what will happen to the UK as a result of unfettered immigration - an indigenous people, the Melanesians, who in a little over a century have become a minority in their own country as a result of the British introducing Indian indentured workers to their sugar plantations. Unstable government and military coups are now the order of the day.Ask any indigenous Fijian their view on immigration and their opinions won't tally with the deluded author of this article.

My advice is to batten down the hatches, there's a storm 'a coming.

Dai Ben, Cardiff,

If there was a rational argument in that piece, I missed it.

There are important issues to deal with. It is no good skimming some of the headlines and comments that the issues generate, then pointing at them and screaming 'racist!', 'xenophobe'! and so on, no matter how many words you have to fill in your column to do so.

Channel 4's recent dispatches programme examined some of these important issues in an honest and open way. The debate *is* moving on. Taboo areas carefully guarded by the PC gestapo *are* being questioned. Society is today paying the price for decades of decisions driven primarily by short term greed. The growing segregation of our cities into separate monocultures is a rather high price to pay for some cheap labour.

Andy, Brixton,

I entirely agree with James'e erudite comments and also with Brian Lewis's observation that nowadays English culture, history and tradition count for nothing. Aaronovitch's tirade is an example of shallow popularism at its worst, full of the snidery of which he accuses others – I'm sure that the people who lost everything in the floods (some their lives) would appreciate his remarks about ruined carpets. Why is it that when someone has the courage to point out legitimate dangers with migrants there is always someone like Aaronovitch to scream abuse? Ok, David, scorn the problems with translation if you will, but then, conveniently, you forget the surge in sex slave trafficking of vulnerable young women (foreigners, I believe).

Alan Coventry, Harrow, UK

About Julie Spence.... Last night, while watching the local TV news, I saw a shot of the back of a police officer. He was wearing a high visibility dayglo yellow vest, with the word "Police" emblazoned on it, and just below that, the word "Polsa."

It seems to me that the flashing blue light on top of the car he got out of would have been enough of a hint for most people. A force that can afford to splurge out on unnecessary bilingual vests for all its officers doesn't seem _that_ hard up for cash...

Ian Kemmish, Biggleswade, UK

I think it is rich that Lord Tebbit is complaining about this anarchic shambles of a country, because it is the result of his efforts at government that this has arisen. The immigration, the high level of crime, poor housing, is the direction provided by his governance. About the only thing good about this country at present, the state of the economy, has nothing to do with him.
This country doesn t need a new direction, it needs to get a grip of the present direction and in particular to develop it s European connections.

Henry Percy, London, UK

Quote from Reza, Londons, post....
"Aaronovitch manages to be sanctimonious, disingenuous and condescending and typical of our liberal............."

I agree completely. I personally know of Polish immigrants who have undercut local wages to levels that could not possibly support anyone, British or otherwise, trying to pay of a mortgage or hoping to be approved for one. So David try very hard to escape the little closed world of Londons class ridden liberati and join the real world where ordinary normal apathetic electors are stuck in situations that daily deteriorate due to professional politicians who with their padded expenses and wives as secretarial help live in the same neighborhood of thought as your posh self.

Sam , Castle Douglas, Scotland

Any article that supports Norman Tebbit needs to be viewed with extreme suspicion. Enough said about that!.

Far more interesting than this article is the fact that it demonstrates the direction in which journalism is going. The Times is my, computer's, home page. It is, without doubt, a good newspaper. However and as an educated person, I read other newspapers. One only needs to read articles in, for example, The Times and The Observer to realise that there is an enormous attempt to manipulate us, the moderately intelligent public. One only needs to follow a journalist who travels from one newspaper to another to realise that his/her views can be incredibly malleable. Who can blame, said, journalist;? Not one of us wantst to bite the hand that feeds him/her.

Marc, St. Barthelemy,

Superb article. A hammer straight on the nail's head.

Sean, Manchester,

When David Aaronovitch asks what problem does the Tory's promise to cut Inheritance Tax solve, he tells us a lot about the circles in which he moves and, probably, also something about his income. From my perspective, and that of most if not all my friends, that tax is the most blisteringly unfair tax in the entire tax lexicon. We have worked, and worked, and saved and saved, paid tax and tax, and then when we die, the Government says "Silly you, as we are now going to pinch 40% of all those savings". Does David feel it to be somehow wrong that these savings should go to our children, that someone else is more deserving? Does he not feel that a tax thought by millions to be unjust, should be amended? Does he believe that he should have more say as to where these savings should go than the people who saved it in the first place?

Conrad Jenkin, PETERSFIELD, HAMPSHIRE

One wonders quite why David Aaronovitch seems to puzzled as to why the Tories have said they will greatly raise the Nil Rate Band of Inheritance Tax. For thousands and thousands of us, this tax is felt to be the most utterly unjust of all the taxes in the entire tax lexicon. For decade after decade we worked and worked, saved and saved, paid tax after tax only to be told by the Government at the end "Silly you as we are now going to take 4O% of all those savings". Does David feel it to be somehow wrong for us to save for our children? Does he feel he is better placed than we ourselves to decide where our savings should go?

What the Tories have decided to do is to remove the main injusticies of this dreadful tax.

Conrad Jenkin, PETERSFIELD, HAMPSHIRE

David I'm not sure you're being completely fair this week..

There is no doubt that immigration has had a huge impact on the low-paid and self-employed. Agencies, employers and those who engage builders, painters, plumbers and decorators are spoilt for choice and this has definitely led to downward pressure on wages and earnings.

Those who were earning above the minimum wage five years ago because local employers had to compete with each other to retain caring, cleaning and catering staff are now faced with stiff competition from prospective employees who are more than happy to earn the minimum wage.

So I am not sure you are right when you say "British jobs for British workers" is mere populism.

In comparison the Tories' proposals on inheritance tax are a total con. If only 6% of estates pay inheritance tax, I'd like to know what proportion of those estates reach the threshold on cash and investments alone. I can't find this out. Maybe you can?

Seasider, Seahaven,

The expectation that Wales should not lose to Fiji is nothing to do with not liking foreigners, it is everything to do with the fact that Wales has a population of at least 3 million people to choose a team from, while Fiji has only about 1 million.

And because Wales has a much more expansive tradition of playing rugby internationally that might be expected to provide a better infrastructure for developing winning teams.

My local village team could technically beat the Welsh team, since they are playing the same game, but it would not be a likely occurrence, not because of any failing in the character of people from my village but because of the wider choice of players, better sponsorship and larger training team which is behind the Welsh team.

Peter, Maidstone,

David is wrong about inheritance tax. It is not presently levied on the top 6% of estates, it is levied on the top 36% of estates. But since not everyone liable to pay it dies in the same year it works out that 6% of all estates pay it in a year.

So 36% of estates would have to pay it if we all dropped dead now. That is a complete misapplication of the tax and makes it virtually universal among those who have a job. Since many of us with estates are in fact couples this means that more than 50% of us are liable to this tax. And since many of those who are not liable are the children of those who are, I would suggest that the majority of people in the country are liable to be penalised by this unjust tax.

Peter, Maidstone,

Aaronovitch manages to be sanctimonious, disingenuous and condescending and typical of our liberal ‘elite’.

My dictionary defines “populism” as “A political philosophy supporting the rights and power of the people in their struggle against the privileged elite.”

So whilst David and his “elite” may sneer at ordinary people's concerns, I’m heartened that some politicians and sections of the media are finally paying attention.

And despite being an Iranian immigrant with a Czech wife, I sympathise with the sincere worries of my white, working-class, compatriots regarding unprecedented levels of immigration and the transformation of their schools and neighbourhoods.

I also sympathise with their feelings of helplessness in the face of a hectoring pro-immigrationist, multiculturalist establishment.

I fear that unless the political mainstream address these perfectly reasonable concerns, tolerant, IGNORED people will be driven to vote for the BNP, as the only way of being heard.

Reza, London,

I don't know how many Somalis or Albanians hang out in Norwich. Where I live in London however, there are lots, and there's no sign of heaven falling in, little blood on the streets, and we are even having a new gas main. Is Norwich any worse?

David Wilson, London,

Thanks David. It is always a relief to read you. I am also a liberal, progressive, internationalist, and I always thought this position as just sensible, logical, a heir to the enlightenment. But following from it, I am so lonely in the conclusions that sometimes I start doubting myself (despite my MA degree in International Political Economy.) Nowadays in Britain it feels as if everybody is xenophobic! The right is racist, the left is protectionist, and the illiterate is afraid (mistakenly) of sharing the benefits. Very sad indeed. Reading you is always relief – I am NOT ALONE! And as we agree in basically everything, it is because there is LOGIC behind our conclusions. Thank you very much for your work.

Mark, Chichester, Sussex

The "Junior Ku Klux Clan" member (aged 10) supposedly threw a rasperry at the Slovak woman you refer to, who proceeded to beat him with an iron bar . And you say you wish the police behaved more like her?

Ben, London, England

I think you're mssing the mood David. Times are changing. For evidence I commend to you the rather good Dispatches documentary on Channel 4 last night. The high cheekboned slavs did well, but the dramatic increases in immigrants and its impact on the host population were articulated very well. We saw a decent British family falling on the council house lists while Africans rose to the top. Americans, slavs and Indians came out it well, but it reflected badly on Somalis, Portuguese and Pakistanis. And it was delivered by that bona fide liberal Jon Snow too. No Tebbits in sight mate.

Michael Sweeney, Salford,

Another piece of windy undergraduate idealism, completely unconcerned and apparently unaware of the consequences of what he advocates. There is immigration that is largely good (Poles) and immigration that is largely bad (Somalis and Albanians) - both non-exclusive examples - and both utterly dependent on numbers for those effects. Too many of either will be disastrous, though in different ways. And to assume that the consciousness of our British Christian heritage, history and distinction can be ridiculed and destroyed without a massive knock-on in terms of social cohesive and collective confidence is reckless to the point of stupidity. When, 30-40 years from now, he surveys the destruction he and his acolytes of this brand of polytechnic marxism have wrought I just hope that he will suffer those consequences and regret, albeit of course far too late.

James, Norwich, UK

I write as an exile - a sort of an outlaw - because the British government only looks after "residents". It sometimes hurts to be aware that to be English counts for nothing. This has not happened because of a conscious decision on my part, but because employment opportunities came my way, and there seemed to be no offers from the UK. So on the one hand, I am sad to see English culture, history and tradition count for nothing, but on the other I suspect governments and diplomats are trying to maintain a 'national' policy in a 19th century style, at a time when we are all becoming international. Where should our allegiance lie, if governments don't want some of us any more!

Brian Lewis, Manila, Philippines