15 SEPTEMBER 2001, Page 32

The myth of cheap labour

From Mr James N. Docherty

Sir: Ross Clark's plea for freer immigration (The land of opportunity', 8 September) was heard 40 years ago: 'Who will staff our factories and hospitals? Now many of the children of those useful immigrants of the 1960s form an unemployed underclass in many of our cities. Farmers and builders may like cheap labour, but its true cost is borne by the taxpayer. As Paul Kennedy said in Preparing for the Twenty-first Century. 'The problem was that the host countries sought labour and got people: workers who, joined by their families, required housing and education and medical attention.'

James N. Docheriy

Rothesay, Isle of Bute