RE Mr Alan Dempster’s letter (March &), Mr Dempster raises a good point, but addresses it to the wrong people. Mass immigration and the refugee crisis (yes, they are two separate issues) are not the causes of our services being “cut and abandoned” but it is the Conservative government that is responsible by chasing an undesirable, short-sighted and illogical drive for austerity which is ideological and simply not pragmatic. 
Therefore, I suggest that Mr Dempster addresses the problems of those “desperate people in our own country” to both Swindon Borough Council AND the Conservative government (which democratically lacks any kind of mandate). 
It is vital to bear in mind that our public services heavily rely on the work of foreign nationals: the NHS simply wouldn’t cope without the thousands of doctors, nurses and other health professions which have migrated to the UK. Secondly, it is essential to remember that the refugees (not immigrants) who are living in the camps at Calais are fleeing the very people who we as a society fear here too: those people who are using a religion to justify the unjustifiable, Daesh. In response to Mr Dempster’s points about the violence of a very small minority of the refugees at Calais, it is vital to bear in mind the desperation of these people and to not vilify the majority of law-abiding refugees who are looking for a safe place after years of living with the fear of leaders like Assad, groups like Daesh and Western or Russian air strikes.
JORDAN SMITH
Leader of Swindon Young Greens