Let’s at least try to be rational

IT IS A PITY that my last letter (Argus August 24) and the letter from David Sleight (Argus August 23) “crossed in the post”. 
Had he been able to read it beforehand he would hopefully have seen that it answered some of the points he made. 
In my letters I have tried to deal with the issue of asylum and refugees in a calm, rational, balanced way, recognising that fulfilling our moral and legal duties to people fleeing war and persecution presents challenges but that we should not exaggerate what these challenges are. 
It is therefore a pity that Mr Sleight retreats into what is, in effect, sloganising: they are all bogus; you wouldn’t want one living next to you. 
To deal effectively with the challenges to the mutual benefit of existing citizens and new arrivals a number of questions need to be dealt with at national and local level. 
These include: how can we ensure that assessment of asylum claims are fair and accurate; is it best, as the government does now, to send asylum seekers to a limited number of distribution centres or should they be more widely distributed; what can be done to ensure that areas receiving asylum seekers and refugees receive appropriate levels of additional central government funding to pay for the services they need; what can be done to help refugees participate fully in, and become contributors to, their new economic, social and cultural environment? 
Let’s try to move forward by discussing these issues rationally rather than adopting entrenched positions which take us nowhere.