Sir, – It is intriguing to note Brexit campaigners Boris Johnson and Michael Gove outline plans to introduce a points-based immigration system if the UK votes to leave the European Union on June 23.
What they seem to have forgotten is that countries that have adopted an Australian-style immigration system have higher levels of immigration than the UK.
Official United Nations figures show immigration per head is higher than the UK in Australia, the United States and Canada; countries that already follow a points-based regime.
In 2015, 13.2% of the UK population was from “international migrant stock”.
By contrast, the proportion was 28.6% in Australia, 22.6% in Canada and 14.7% in the US, all higher than the UK.
It is disappointing that Vote Leave is aping UKIP’s favourite migration policy, even more so when the evidence shows it doesn’t even work.
What its supporters also omit to mention is that clearly, if the UK were to adopt such a system, EU member states would put restrictions on UK citizens living and working in their countries.
EU migrants make a huge contribution to our society, despite lurid newspaper headlines often heralding the opposite.
They contribute much more to the economy than they take out and work in our vital public services, such as hospitals and schools.
It is a disgrace that Vote Leave supporters are using them as political footballs.
Alex Orr.
77 Leamington Terrace,
Edinburgh.
Facts support Remain case
Sir, – With all the rhetoric generated by the EU referendum, it is easy to lose sight of the basic facts.
Nigel Farage and Vote Leave cannot name one serious economic organisation that believes the UK would be better off if we left the EU.
That is because economic experts from the Bank of England and the IMF to the OECD all say we are better off in Europe.
The whole EU referendum has been triggered by a Tory Party civil war which has rumbled on for decades.
This struggle is not actually about British sovereignty and definitely not about what is best for the British people. It is a frequently squalid struggle for control of the Tory Party, with opportunists using the issue to attack and weaken the Prime Minister and his allies.
These Europhobic Tories are in a minority. The only other political parties to support them are the BNP and UKIP. Every other major party wants Britain to stay in.
The level of actual support in the country for such policies was shown in the last General Election when UKIP failed to make the breakthrough it predicted.
Charles Wilson.
King’s Road,
Rosyth.
A warning from history
Sir, – When it comes to the EU referendum, why is no one talking about fundamentals that everyone can understand?
In 1952 Jean Monnet, one of the founding fathers of what is now the EU, is said to have written that Europe’s nations should be guided towards a superstate without their people understanding what is happening.
The 1992 Maastricht Treaty stated that the treaty marks a new stage in the process of creating an ever-closer union.
In the 2007, the Lisbon Treaty stated something almost identical.
Clement Attlee said in 1950 that there was no way Britain could accept that the most vital economic forces of this country should be handed over to an authority that is responsible to nobody.
If only we had listened.
Tina Wilson.
The Gardens,
Dunalastair,
Kinloch Rannoch.
City of constant reinvention
Sir, – I was intrigued and amused by the erection and subsequent demolition of the magnificent Royal Arch of cardboard at the Waterfront in Dundee last weekend.
Ever since I became acquainted with Dundee, in 1968, a city for which I have considerable fondness, there has been successive demolition and replacement of buildings and roads without, it seems, cessation.
Is this latest exercise merely intended to poke fun at Dundee’s continuing alterations or is there a darker reason behind it?
When is Dundee to be completed?
Paddy Garthwaite.
Ladeside House,
Rattray,
Blairgowrie.
Tackle Perth problem hotel
Sir, – Much has been written in The Courier of late about the state of St Paul’s Church and Perth and Kinross Council is at long last getting to grips with the owner.
Could someone at the Council please bring us up to speed with what is happening about the rotting Waverley Hotel building in York Place?
I cannot help wondering that if the Waverley Hotel was owned by someone other than Mrs Ann Gloag of Stagecoach then Perth and Kinross Council would be making sure that the hideous state of the property was rectified in some way.
When you consider that this property is on the main thoroughfare into Perth, it is quite disgusting that it has been allowed to deteriorate into such a terrible state.
So come on Perth and Kinross Council, please make Mrs Gloag tidy it up.
D S Stewart.
8L Tulloch Road,
Perth.
Pipe dream of green energy
Sir, – With his blind faith in electric cars, your correspondent Gordon Pay would probably also believe the phoney physics of the perpetual motion machine.
It is amazing how far Britain has gone with such a defective premise as renewables.
There are no figures in existence to justify energy from renewables, or indeed, electric cars.
There simply cannot be.
Renewable energy is just a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow.
Malcolm Parkin.
15 Gamekeepers Road,
Kinnesswood,
Kinross.
Teach more and test less
Sir, – Is John Swinney the right person to hold the education brief in the Scottish Government?
We will have to wait and see but, for the sake of our children in school, we cannot afford to wait too long.
I hope his long-term approach to the job is better than his first couple of days.
Can he please explain what is the difference between a test and an age-appropriate assessment?
What verbal nonsense is that?
What this country needs to do is to step away from its obsession with testing.
I spent 34 years in education and very early on in my career I read the saying: “You don’t fatten a pig by weighing it” and it stayed with me and acted as my guidance through my years in schools.
Unfortunately this country wants to spend far too much time and resources educationally weighing our children.
Spend more time on teaching and learning.
Our teachers know our children, they know how they are progressing and endless testing adds very little to the pupils’ progress.
What happens in the classroom is what is important.
A good teacher can quickly tell strengths and needs in all of their pupils.
I believe the First Minister when she says that she wants to put education and particularly closing the attainment gap at the heart of her government but she and her Education Secretary need to use the right approaches to achieve her aim and believe me, focusing on testing (or should that be age appropriate assessment?) will change nothing.
David A MacKenzie.
12 Torridon Place,
Kinross.