Letters: The problem with the ‘alpha migrants’

Here illegally

Sir: Unfortunately, Charlotte Eagar misses the point (‘The alpha migrants’, 31 July). The Channel migrants may be ‘bright and brave’, and may repay what they gain from the benefit system. But they are here illegally, thus riding roughshod over the immigration system and those who are still waiting to have their asylum applications processed lawfully. This farce must not be allowed to continue as a taxpayer-funded taxi service for people-trafficking gangs.

Victoria Baillon

Hornblotton, Somerset

On liberty

Sir: Michael Cullup (Letters, 31 July) bemoans that ‘The Spectator these days seems obsessed with the idea of freedom’ and that his youth of boarding school, blackouts, rationing and the Royal Navy means that most of his generation aren’t bothered by restrictions on liberty.

Firstly, The Spectator has always been one of Britain’s premier voices for liberty. David Butterfield’s recent history of the magazine, 10,000 Not Out, details how this has been so since 1828.

With regards to his second argument, the answer is yes, life in Britain has normally been different to his formative years. Unfortunately for Mr Cullup and his peers, they grew up during perhaps the most perilous war our country has ever fought, so extreme measures upon normal life were deemed necessary for national survival. As for National Service, that was an aberration in Britain. It has only existed for 11 years in our entire peacetime history: 1949-1960.

Charles Clark

Already Roaring

Sir: Douglas Murray contends that we are entering a ‘Boring Twenties’ of endless pings and vaccines and that this is not going to be a party decade (‘Get ready for the Boring Twenties’, 24 July). Whatever the travails this decade has in store for us, I should like to temper his pessimism by assuring him that those of us in the younger generation with a taste for such things have been attending parties with great panache and style.