Chattering classes isolated from reality; VOICE OF THE NORTH.

I SPENT a few minutes watching one of those political debates on television intended for pseudo-intellectuals, where they were discussing an appeal from Mayor of London Boris Johnson to offer an amnesty to illegal immigrants.

The argument aired was that the incomers would be a positive asset, contributing to our society, all apparently toting degrees and other qualifications or at least manually-skilled (an indication, surely, of failure in our own education system).

Eager to demonstrate their generosity, they display ignorance of, due to isolation from, the real world.

I believe entry is fairly easy for skilled folk and that none of the so-called positive assets are to be found in the hordes fighting with police at Calais, seeking to disappear in an underpaid underworld of unskilled slave labour.

It's odd that these advocates of liberalism are all of a class unaffected by unemployment, lack of housing, over-stretched schools and NHS services, due to over-population. Believers in global warming preach that the sea is rising. I suspect our island is simply sinking under the excess weight.

DON HENDERSON, Gateshead