I SUPPORT what Brian Hunt said in his letter headlined "Prevention is better than cure Mr Blair."

Government policy, on economic migrants, amounts to "smoke and mirrors." Throckmorton, while important locally, is only a side issue. The Council of Mortgage Lenders has reported that immigration is one factor driving up house prices.

With the Home Office dealing with 400,000 applications a year, it should be appreciated that we're currently engaged in building four cities the size of Worcester, annually, to accommodate all those that want to make their home here.

Government, as part of its plan to tackle illegal immigration, has increased the number of work permits by 50,000. Is it any wonder then that it is reported that 137 "economic migrants" a day - 49,868 a year - disappear?

As a decent people, we have to aid those who are genuinely fleeing in fear of their lives. But that innate decency of British people is being greatly abused. We're a small island nation, but (as a proportion of our population) we accept five times the number of immigrants (400,000) annually, as does America (700,000).

We cannot go on accepting such numbers without clamping down on the lifestyles of our citizens.

That process has begun. Car use is being actively discouraged, because our roads can't cope.

We see now that government is thinking of taxing us on the length of time we live in our homes. That will mean that the old will be forced to sell up their three and four bedroomed-homes for a one-bed flat.

All these measures are designed to sustain economic growth, through large-scale immigration, while diminishing the lifestyle we, the people, have worked a lifetime to achieve.

N TAYLOR, Worcester.