THE essentially undemocratic nature of immigration is and has been a disaster created by weak, pusillanimous and shortsighted politicians.

Cameron can win an election if he offers liberal (Iain Duncan Smith) policies on health, education, prisons and social matters generally combined with a hard line on immigration and justice, and forgets about (Forsyth) tax policies – unless Gordon Brown goes for this and wrong-foots the naive Cameron (Michael Portillo, Immigration, the taboo word that will cost Cameron dear, Comment, last week).

Michael Howard lost not because of his antiasylum and immigration policies but because of the NHS and the ridiculous “patients’ passports”, which few understood but most feared.

JOHN KELLY, Cardiff

BORDER CONFLICT: The issue is not immigration but the fact that we have lost control over our borders. For a thousand years or more we have absorbed migrants and there is no reason for this not to continue. We do not control, regulate or have the ability to count the influx, among which are not just “the workers we need” but legions of aggressive young opportunists.

And while some who come here from conditions of great privation will be resourceful people who will benefit us all, many more will be criminals.

ROBERT EVERITT, Wolverhampton

THE NEED TO CONFORM: I agree with Portillo that immigration must be a subject for open debate. I have taken advantage of the freedom of movement within the EU. Here you are expected to speak Spanish/Catalan – no government interpreters are provided for routine day-to-day living such as going to the doctors, hospital or school.

You are expected to conform and respect the values of your host country. When I’m in England it seems the other way round. The UK should restrict immigration primarily to EU members and over time things will balance out as the standard of living of new member states improves. We are not responsible for the ills of the rest of the world.

IRENE MACLEMAN, Barcelona, Spain

OUR COUNTRY'S GOOD: The self-styled elites have created an intellectual climate in which it is simply unacceptable to challenge the orthodoxy that “immigration is a good thing”. Nobody disputes that brain surgeons and other skilled immigrants are an asset. But the mantra “our diversity is our strength” implies that our homogeneity is our weakness.

It is evidently nonsense that an English village is socially weaker than Tower Hamlets. Cameron’s comment about too much immigration implies it is purely a numbers issue. He is agnostic about whether the country is populated by the native British or newcomers.

HOWARD GLEAVE, Richmond, Surrey

MARKET FORCES: It is odd how many of the most virulent comments about immigration come from Brits who have fled these shores and become immigrants themselves. Or are these people somehow different/better?

This is a pointless discussion, not because of some sinister plot, but rather the rule of the market (which used to be core conservatism) – unless you wish to cut the UK off from world markets for goods and capital.

JAMES THORNLEY, Belgrade, Serbia

NO CHOICE: Portillo writes that Powell’s 1968 speech put an end to his political career. That was deserved because of his failure to mention that he was minister of health when he recruited staff from the West Indies (which I welcomed).

Portillo also points out that we were not given a choice on a multicultural UK but the electorate was not asked about hospital closure either. If we had been told that local services would be withdrawn before specialist centres were in place the present government may not have been elected.

ROSEMARY NAJIM, by e-mail

WRONG CROWD: The reason for the lopsided debate on immigration is surely that there are a lot of sincere racists out there. Even if you make a case for restricting immigration, the reality is that you’re going to be shot with the birds you fly with. You’re seen to be supporting people it would be better to disassociate oneself from.

MAX CHRISTIAN, Seoul, Korea

BLUE RINSE: Cameron has not lost support because he is behind in the polls but because Tories have realised he isn’t a Tory. Anymore than Portillo is.

BILL MARTIN, Barnsley, South Yorkshire

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