7 OCTOBER 1995, Page 32

A trading nation

Sir: I enjoyed Paul Johnson's Swiftian Pro- posal (And another thing, 30 September) that moneyed Chinese immigrants should be encouraged to finance the export of the black community from Britain.

But why stop there? Surely there are plenty of Russian biznessmen who would be happy to buy a British passport if the cash were used to deport some of our excess sin- gle mothers of Irish descent who have failed to show entrepreneurial qualities. In that way we could finally break away from the roman- tic myth that our country is a patrie, a nation commanding loyalty and giving respect to its citizens, and accept that it is just another trading mall trying to up its profits.

Anthony Chalmers

28 Richmond Way, London W12