I MUST confess to being perplexed by Mr Jones' letter, "Views are gagged" (You Say, April 15).

Just why should it be deemed necessary for the Commission for Racial Equality to obtain a pledge from the major political parties not to play "the race card" in any election campaign?

What exactly is "the race card?"

We, as a nation, cannot turn away those who face death, or worse, in their own countries. We have that duty as a free people, in a sovereign nation. We're also a tiny island, with 600 people per square mile.

Mention plans to build thousands more houses anywhere and an action group will spontaneously form to oppose such plans.

Nationwide, local authorities are spending millions in futile attempts to "solve" the traffic problems caused by unsustainable levels of development.

We're on the cusp of covertly giving up the ability to grow our own food because we are concreting over the land on which that food is grown. We are paying "environmental taxes" to try and rein in the damage we're doing to our environment. Yet we're making that damage worse, year on year, through unsustainable level of development.

At what point will it be acceptable to question the fact that we, as a nation, have finite resources to house, employ, feed, and nurture levels of inward migration?

N TAYLOR,

Worcester.