ONE would hope our parliamentary representatives would use their influence and privileged position to shed genuine light on problems in Calais rather than, as David Davies MP does, potentially inflaming community relations through unjust generalisations.
Mr Davies implies that those attempting to reach Britain are all “economic migrants,” ignoring the fact that many were perfectly content to stay in their own countries and enjoyed good lives as middle class professionals before their way of life was destroyed by war or brutal dictatorship.
Would he have portrayed those who cut wires or stowed away on lorries to escape from East Germany before 1989 as “vandals” behaving “illegally”.
He portrays those seeking to reach Britain purely in terms of “expectations” and “costs,” whereas most seek only to find work.
From his letter, you would think that all those arriving in Europe were heading for Britain, whereas in reality Britain has taken far fewer asylum seekers than countries such as Germany or Sweden. Many of the minority who do seek to come to Britain do so because they speak passable English and/or because they admire Britain as a tolerant nation.
He offers no solutions to the problem. These are complex and difficult issues which require a calm approach and an all-EU response.
Mr Davies offers neither of these.

Peter Strong
Caldicot