Letters: UK citizens are ‘benefit tourists’ too

The following letters appear in the 16th January edition of the Independent

According to a poll of Anglican clergy, as many as 16 per cent are unclear about God (Rex)

With much debate focused on restricting access to benefits for those coming to the UK from other EU countries, some perspective is needed. There are about 2.2 million UK citizens living and working in the rest of the EU with, for example, just over 1 million British people living in Spain and 329,000 in Ireland.

Indeed, unemployed Britons in the EU are drawing much more in benefits and allowances in wealthier EU countries than their nationals are claiming in the UK. For example, four times as many Britons obtain unemployment benefits in Germany as Germans do in the UK, while the number of jobless Britons receiving benefits in Ireland exceeds their Irish counterparts in the UK by a rate of five to one.

Contrary to popular perceptions, the figures for nationals of those 10 East European countries drawing jobseeker’s allowance in the UK remain modest, despite the periodic outcries about “benefits tourism”. There are only about 1,000 Romanians and 500 Bulgarians, for example, drawing jobseeker’s allowance in Britain, according to the Department for Work and Pensions.

Of those EU migrants living here a mere 1.2 per cent are not economically active. According to University College London, between 2001 and 2011 EU migrants made an estimated positive net contribution of £20bn to the UK economy.

Derek Hammersley

Chairman, The European Movement in Scotland

Edinburgh

What should be the attitude of the Labour Party leadership to the forthcoming referendum on leaving the European Union? Labour supporters are to be presented with an unenviable choice: vote to withdraw or approve terms of membership drawn up by a Tory prime minister. The status quo is not to be on offer.

It has been repeatedly pointed out, not least by The Independent, that the prime purpose of the referendum is to resolve problems within the Conservative Party. The Labour leader should therefore advise those of his party’s followers who are unable to square their consciences with voting one way or the other, to abstain.

A low turnout could bring benefits all round. It might teach our leaders that they should not play party games with the nation’s future. It could draw attention to the need for the calling of referendums to be subject to the terms of a written constitution. It would deprive the present government of any right it might claim to rupture our relationship with our European partners, where such right is based on a process which, whatever its merits in principle, is in this case a political con trick.

Mike Timms

Iver, Buckinghamshire

Today, our UK border with France on the Dover/Calais route is firmly in France, with the result that the many people who want to come into UK but have no permission sit in France, in the wretched camps. Bad as the situation is, the border appears to hold, mostly.

However, if the UK leaves the EU, does anyone suppose that the French government will continue to accept the burden of policing the UK border and enduring the inconvenience of the migrant camps for a moment longer than it has to? The French, if they had any sense, would revoke the arrangements, repatriate the border and book as many as possible as soon as possible en route to Dover.

While the present arrangements may be unsatisfactory, voters must be mindful of what unintended consequences could arise.

Look out Kent – be careful what you wish for.

Tim Brook

Bristol

Anglican church takes backward step

It is amazing to think that the abolition of slavery was ever possible in an institution now delivering a spiritual atmosphere so hostile to sustaining human life (“Anglican leaders defy liberals and condemn same-sex marriage”, 15 January).

The willingness of the American episcopal church to embrace equality in marriage is a courageous act of faith, that is an encouragement for all Anglicans who have not yet given up on the church, despite the death rattles offered by many of its bishops.

For the sake of the real damage done to vulnerable living people by an unyielding institution, we might pray for greater acts of institutional independence or even Gandhian “spiritual disobedience” from parts of the Anglican communion.

Archdeacon Peter Macleod-Miller

Albury, New South Wales, Australia

Radio 4’s Today programme refuses to let a humanist deliver its “Thought for the Day”, insisting instead that only representatives of organised religions can usefully reflect for us on how we live our lives. The latest “thought” from the Church of England out in the real world? That we should ostracise those who support gay marriage and support those who promote homophobia – stances which are in direct opposition both to the law and overwhelming public opinion in this country.

If the established church, with these regressive views, is allowed to promote its narrow-mindedness on our flagship news radio programme, surely a humanist should be allowed on to provide some balance?

Stanley Knill

London N15

Economics vs planetary survival

Hamish McRae (Economic View, 14 January) delivers his usual Panglossian assessment of the world economy, an entity determined not by the laws of physics, chemistry or biology, but by the algorithms of classical economic theory. Thus a nosediving oil price is a clear dividend leading automatically to increased consumption growth, more jobs (at least until overtaken by automation) and a happier life for everyone (particularly the rich).

In this alternative reality no mention is ever made of the effect that using more and more cheap oil has on the environment. No mention of climate change, ocean acidification, deforestation, fresh water depletion.

What is really needed is a paradigm shift in how we view economics, demoting it from its primacy and placing it below environmental imperatives.

Steve Edwards

Haywards Heath, W Sussex

Hamish McRae overstates the benefits of a dropping oil price. A drop of £1.40 to £1/litre equates to under £10/week savings for a motorist doing 10k miles per year and 35mpg. This is more than offset by the price of everything else that seems to be going up in double digits, not least the deposit required to purchase a house in the UK. Add to that lost jobs in the oil sector and maybe $100 oil isn’t so bad after all?

Dr Neil Lowrie

Sheffield

David Bowie was more than just a singer

Peter Forster (Letters, 13 January) can legitimately make a case that Placido Domingo is an equal, or better, singer than David Bowie. But to suggest that the media’s response to Bowie’s death was over the top and that Domingo’s death would warrant equal coverage smacks of a cultural snobbery reminiscent of the scathing attitudes towards the Beatles in their early days, when their music was deemed “low culture”.

Chris Talbot

Hastings

Government eroding doctors’ morale

In the 1970s Lord Taylor said that if you don’t think a section of the workforce has the moral right to strike you must never leave them feeling they have no alternative. Successive changes by government have seriously eroded doctors’ morale. The Government should ask itself why so many doctors trained in this country have now gone abroad.

Chris Smallwood

Chapple Farm, Devon

Sadly, as your editorial of 11 January rightly reminds us, it’s Jeremy Hunt and his advisers whose intransigence in this lengthy saga may well harm many patients. Whatever oath politicians and their civil servants take clearly omits: “First, use common sense.”

Dr Michael A Reynolds

Buxton, Derbyshire

Anthems for England

We here in England have many hymns with splendid tunes and ancient and poetic words, from which we could choose a rousing rugby anthem (Letters, 15 January). I recall that at Winston Churchill’s funeral John Bunyan’s “He Who Would Valiant Be” rang out in St Paul’s to great and moving effect.

Imagine those words echoing around Twickenham as the camera scrutinises the gnarled and often alarming faces of the English team before they enter the increasingly bloody fray.

David Hindmarsh

Cambridge

The language of greetings

Glasgow Central MP Alison Thewliss has suggested that handshakes should be replaced with first bumps to avoid the spread of germs (14 January). The origins of handshakes was to test the strength of the opponent. So maybe it is time for a change.

We might consider the Indian way which is to put your palms together in greeting. It is body language that sends a message of peace and friendship.

Nitin Mehta

Croydon, Greater London