I WROTE recently about the financial implications of leaving the EU and promised to follow it up with looking at the other big issue --immigration.

One myth can be immediately countered by recent statistics.

The present migrant population contributed over £2.5 billion to the exchequer and only received £0.5billion in benefits so they are not a drain on our resources.

If the government then spent this money on the extra school places needed then we would not have a problem.

Migrants are generally young people and this has helped to balance the ageing British population which would otherwise be causing us all sorts of social problems.

They are also taking on the jobs the British tend not to want to do, in particular those that are seasonal and require people to lodge near their work. (Flower picking and planting in spring, holiday trades in the summer and autumn before helping the orchard harvest).

The other main employment is in the care industries and we are need more and more people in this area because of our own age profile.

Many migrants are often here to improve their English and earn some funds to enable them to return home and invest in their own countries.

Consequently they often share accommodation and so do not look for housing benefit as six people living in the house can afford the rent, rent that is often going to the increasing number of second homes bought with pension pots by those English of retirement age and which is the main reason for the house price increases pushing people out of the housing market).

If the unemployed want jobs we are desperately short of doctors, nurses, teachers, midwives, social workers and some skilled jobs in the construction industry.

Why do we have to look overseas for people to fill these jobs?

Why are we not training enough people of our own for these relatively well paid posts?

If people are unemployed there are vacancies, but they may require some hard work to achieve the necessary qualifications.

Another frequent red herring is that migrants are causing the problems in the NHS. Most of the young migrants do not need the NHS, but if we left the EU and a million young migrants left this country what is likely to happen?

They would be replaced by the million plus British people living in Europe, and then we could have a real crisis in the NHS. Most ex-pats are older people and are presently making full use of the health services of France, Spain and Germany where many of them are living. They would certainly add to our NHS problems if they were forced to return home once they became non-EU citizens where they are presently living.

Finally what do our young people think? I was fortunate to hear some of their views at a discussion in the Sixth form at one of our schools. Well over 80% believed that the major problems they faced for the future would only be solved globally and not by nationalism, and they clearly wanted to stay in the EU. I ask all of us to consider when we vote how it will impact on our children and grand children and to ask them how they see the world of the future.

David Harris Address supplied