I make the arduous trek over virtual land and sea to read David's articles here because he doesn't write for the Graun any more. If here wasn't writing here, I wouldn't be reading here.

RPT_O, Stafford,

Most young whites planning to leave? Millions of people? Total bunk; most of those who are are being driven by a mad property bubble which is now bursting! Crowded trains and roads, all the result of the worst infrastructure in Europe. But it's easier to blame the people who clean our hospitals.

Gerry, Belfast, N Ireland

David could be right about immigration falling off, in which case perhaps we wouldn't need to ask foreign workers to leave after 4 years, so what have we lost in having such a policy ready. But what if he's wrong? We must have a policy.

peter, cirencester,

Most young whites are already planning to leave or being advised to leave. Logic now dictates these islands are headed for a very bloody future due to wooly thinking of this type and crass govt and economic mismanagement.

Dave, Chorley,

What will happen is all the ethnic British people will leave the country as more and more migrants flood in. Not a future for Britain many of us would hope for.

Claire, London, UK

Is David Aaronovitch really naive enough to believe that people from third world countries will return home to a land steeped in bribery, corruption and poverty? Many people from Africa, Asia and China risk their life to get here to get here - they don't want to go back to the life they had!

John, London, UK

"Let the labour-market handle it" is great in theory. But our labour-makret is massively warped by unconditional welfare. Introduce a 5-year immigrant wait rule for all welfare and you'll see the immigration "problem" disappear over night.

Diversity IS great, unconditonal welfare is outrageous.

Bertie , London,

Of course immigration will fall as employment opportunities, benefits and social housing are curtailed due to a shrinking economy.

Three quarter of a million Brits have decided opportunties are better elsewhere.

Can't be long before millions of economic migrants decide the same.

John Collins, Bromley, Kent

has any body given a thought if the british had not migrated to northern america, australia, new zealand and africa how peaceful the world would have been.

rajan mathew, BIRMINGHAM, united kingdom

And if we do lose talent we need to other countries it doesn't occur to DA that it might be because other countries have not had their quality of life trashed by overcrowding.All the other places people might want to go to have immigration controls to stop it happening.

Ian, Sheffield, UK

David Aaronovitch arguments are akin to those who deny climate change is man made. Lots of irrelevant bluff, you can argue all you like about how population projections are notoriously inaccurate. Sitting in a a traffic jam or an overcrowded train and I know the answer that Britain is overcrowded.

Mike, Liverpool, Merseyside

Paradise in 1815? Er, no. The country was bankrupt after a long war (against Napoleon) and 1816 was known as the year with no summer because the weather was so bad.
Nothing changes. We just have more people living here.

Dave, Slough,

What's not in doubt is that the demography and culture of Britain has been deliberately, and massively, changed over the last 50 years (for better or worse), without the existing population being asked if that's what it wants. The arrogance, and implicit fascism, behind that drive is outrageous.

Ken Leyland, Liverpool, U.K.

The population is way too high now. The South East of England is one of the most densely populated places in the world.
I spent 2 hours on the school run this morning. My childs school is 10 miles away and there is no other transport option. We have talent , mobility stalls on social housing.

Lucy, Surrey, UK

Why does DA not "follow his angels"?as he puts it,if he's so alarmed at a realistic approach to immigration coming in. Please.

D.Grant, Hinckley, England

Stop giving out dole. British citizens will get back to work and employers will have no need to seek migrant workers.

Talyn, Uxbridge, UK

The more the merrier I say :)

Lupe Fiasco, London,

It's too late already. The Loony Left have won by destroying the indigenous population of Europe and turning it into just another Third World swamp. What has been gained? Absolutely nothing, unless there's something afoot which we know not of. What has been lost? Common sense.

Don, Glasgow & Dorset, UK

Aaronovitch fails to appreciate that no indigenous population wants to change as much as its migrants want to change it. If you want to change a country then change your own. No migrant influx in recent times ever changed a country for the better. Most caused huge problems that are still unresolved.

J Harker, London, UK

Armand, I'm sorry to tell you that Jack the Ripper didn't strike until 1888. That's a long time after 1815.

John F, London,

Yet it seems that Britain is still ready to show remorse to bogus asylum seekers because it would be against human rights to kick them out and similar nonsense.
Yet millions of Britons that can't be asked to work claim that foreigners are stealing their jobs.
Control of all immigration please.

Marina, Geneva, Switzerland

David, you've missed the point. The sustainable maximum UK population is under 30 million. Somehow, we need to reverse our current growth, which is being caused by immigration. If that were "balanced", our population would gradually reduce. How better do you think could we achieve this?

George Lord, London, UK

I am an independent recruitment consultant and have just started an initiative to recruit Romanian pharmacists to work in the UK. So far I have not had one single CV. Perhaps they realise that GB is no longer the land of milk and honey it once was.

Charles Bell, Cluj Napoca, Romania

I guess David Aaronovitch's approach encapsulates the biggest issue here. You can't have a debate involving immigration without some-one shouting -kick em out. Even if it is impossible to be right about the numbers you still have to have a strategy- ideally a population objective and strategy.

roger bartley, battle, tn33 Ohn

Ahh, the paradise of 1815 - where 8 year olds were sent down chimney's to clean, life expectancy was 25 years, jack the ripper roamed the streets, and the Thames was heavily polluted along with the choking smoke in the air of London...

Paradise indeed

Armand Tamzarian, London,

Mark:

Presumably in referring to Labour and "the liberal elite" you include Cameron's Tories?

Myles, Glasgow,

Over 86% of the UK population want considerably less immigration immediately - it is out of control and has been for the last 10 years. If people come here to work, why should they have a right to become a British citizen? They shouldn't. Earn money, but then go home.

Anthony, London, W2, UK

Of course getting rid of settled communities and replacing them with alien ones is a change for the worse. What an extraordinary idea that it is not. Anywhere else except DAs mind that would be called ethnic cleansing.

Fred, Southampton, UK

An utterly predictable article. Sorry, England is the size of a small US state, eg Indiana. It cannot take more of this uncontrolled flow of repopulation, on the terms of the politically correct apparchiks now in charge. Frank Field is one of the few decent MPs. Educate new plumbers etc - simple.

Janice, Witney, UK

i thought you lived in the US - have you any idea how the UK has changed in the last 10 years??

adrian, london,

I go to Oslo quite often, its %immigration is maybe higher than UK. From what I hear the Norwegians are quite alarmed at the wayt their govt has let this change happen without any vote from the indigineous population.. So,not different to here really.

rikrok, London, uk

Immigrants leave their homes for a chance at a better life. Wealthier countries accept them because they will do worse jobs for less pay. Is it exploitation or giving people a chance? Either way its hypocrisy to focus on cultural enrichment (the fringe benefit) when ultimately its just about money.

Charlie, Paris, France

Take a peek at the 2001 census figures and family reproduction rates. Islam bans contraception, that explains most of it. So much of the prediction depends on the culture and religion of migrants - Mr Field's projection could be an under estimate, quite easily.

Ib, Dalston, UK

I do like the idea of 5 million or so people and clean rivers.
Idyllic.Maybe Norway is the way to go....

rikrok, London , uk

Its too late to fix. It will take a decades to put the UK economy back into balance. In the meantime I am advising my children to seek their futures abroad where they can keep more of what they earn in a society with less PC and public sector burden.

Stephen Marchant, Newton Abbot, UK

Let's face it. Eastern Europeans came here to get away from the aftermath of socialism, only to find they had walked into the labour party's version of the same. Why would they stay now that the situation at home is improving?

KR, Stockport,

Fatty Arbuckle criticising Laurel and Hardy ?

G.Reid, Birkenhead, England

Jean H, Oslo, Norway - "the UK needs to attract the best talent from all over". But we aren't doing this! The UK is a free for all with no controls or limits. Illegal immigrants seem to have endless rights, whereas those obeying the law are made to jump through hoops. The whole system is wrong!

EW, Southampton, UK

Why come to Britain when places like Norway exist? Besides, isn't there quite a bit of economic emigration from Britain already? (i.e. lots of people quitting Britain to live somewhere where the cost of living is cheaper) DA is right - immigration is a policy area that needs a big rethink.

Nullius, London, UK

The reason E Europeans have left is due to the weakness of STG v the Euro. They will be back.

Your logic is that immigrants themselves will never grow old, however they too will need looking after in their later life ramping up the population still further.

We will just all have to work longer

Patty O' Doors, Oxford,

Modern day Britain is so hung up on being politically correct that immigration has become a far bigger issue than it should be. Australia has stringent immigration controls and it is in a far better state than Britain. We have developed an irrational fear about being seen as bigoted or racist.

Dr. Barclay, Dundee, Scotland

One of the problems surrounding the debate on immigration is that it is classified as all good or all bad by different groups. 14% of the UK prison population are foreign nationals, many people working for the NHS are also foreign nationals. More needs to be done to differentiate good from bad.

chris bronfman, London,

Yes we might have problems getting workers to stay as the tax is so high in the UK but we will have no problems getting all the spongers to stay.

This Government needs to take a reality check, have any of them been to the East End lately? Or Tooting?

Tom Wright, Reigate,

Balanced migration - The sadness of watching the children that you have raised and educated migrate to Oz, NZ and Canada whilst undeducated newcomers take their place on the statistics.

Ken, Coventry, UK

If Labour and the liberal elite want an 'open door' policy and propose to destroy the countryside and our national identity in pursuing that policy then they should have the courage and honesty to state that openly. As it is they are dishonestly attempting to pursue their own agenda by stealth.

Mark, Berkhamsted,

Britain needs is to depopulate. If only we had about 5 milliuon people in Britain this country would be the paradise it was in 1815. It would then be as beautiful as Norway with clean sparkling rivers and streams. Immense forests teeming with life and pristine beautiful coastline.

Keith bentham, Wigan, uk

It is all to easy to be horrified by immigration controls in the UK, when you live in one of the world's richest, healthy and socially stable countries, i.e., Norway.

Steven, London,

The Australians are leaving, the Poles are leaving. Britain's becoming so extreme that even the immigrants are emigrating. Some of them. And as multiculturalism becomes diversity... Britain is Humpty Dumpty; no way can it be put back together.

Andrew Milner, Karuizawa, Japan

One Luton is quite enough.

Craig Strachan, Los Angeles, USA

I too am horrified by Immigration controls -we live in a globalized world and the UK needs to attact the best talent from all over if we are not too wither and die ,,,

Jean H, Oslo, Norway