I would not normally read Julian Cole's column (Evening Press, February 17), but the headline caught my eye.

He is entitled to his opinion, but I doubt if his views on the Afghanistan plane hi-jacking are those of 80 per cent of the British population, probably 99 per cent in Dover which is apparently awash with people seeking to live in Britain.

Home Secretary Jack Straw promised a swift solution to this problem, and his credibility is on the line if he does not send the asylum seekers back home.

Mr Cole calls the British mean, yet he failed to mention the other known 100,000 supposed asylum seekers in this country, who have made themselves guests of the British tax payer for an indefinite time.

If Britain isn't a soft touch, why do they come? Not, I suspect, for the culture, climate or love of the British, they are almost certainly economic refugees.

Then there are the Romanian travellers thieving in Selby (Evening Press, February 16). No one apparently knew that they were not in the hostel down south.

These problems must be resolved for the sake of Britain and the British way of life. We are not exactly under populated, it's time someone stood up for the British.

R Osborne,

Springbank Avenue,

Dunnington, York.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.