Steve Shaw. "But that is racist. If you play on people's fears, or scaremonger, in a matter such as immigration, instead of coolly explaining the facts along with what you see as the pros and cons relating to people who arrive in this country, you are racist."

Forgive the brevity of what follows, because I'm just on my way to Keswick jazz festival. However, there is a significant difference between those who hate people of other races and those who express concern at the numbers of people coming in. The latter is understandable (although in my view insupportable). The former is inexcusable. The problem is that people who "legitimately" fear that there won't be enough jobs, housing, schools or whatever are preyed on by the lies and propaganda of the far right.

My own view, and I admit that it's very Adam Smith, and very free market, is that these things are self righting. IE., people will only come here if they can't get a better deal on the jobs market anywhere else. On that basis, I've never understood why it is that Tory/UKIP free marketeers are among the first to complain about immigration. As free marketeers, one would expect them to support the free movement of labour.

I'm going to be away for the best part of a week, and won't be able to take part in any more discussion until I get back. However, I'll leave you with four thoughts.

One. The notion that huge waves of foreigners are coming to live on state benefits is absolute crap. The overwhelming majority of immigrants migrate to work and to better themselves, and I say good luck to them.

Two. There's a notion abroad that we about to get swamped by hordes of Romanians and Bulgarians, who will change our way of life forever. Again, it's bunkum, as anyone who has ever studied patterns of European migration will concur. People from Eastern and Southern Europe usually migrate for fairly short periods. IE., they move abroad, work like hell for a few years, make as much money as possible, and then they go home. I'm not sure why, but I think it may be linked to the joint peasant family structure which prevails over most of Eastern Europe. IE., where you get several generations of the one family all living together, it may be that, once the children reach a certain age, it becomes their turn to migrate and make money to support the rest of the family. Dunno. That's just a hunch, but one way or another we are not going to get swamped.

Three. In view of the free market ideas expressed above, I'd better add that my interest in this is mainly humanistic. IE., I regard the entire human race as a single entity and that, irrespective of skin colour or social culture, we are all fundamentally the same. We all descend from the same tiny group of people and, even though acclimatisation might have induced minor physiological changes, our brain patterns - and cerebral capacities - are pretty much the same the world over. I just wish that those who moan about immigration would worry more about the hardship and suffering which drives people to emigrate, and stop regarding them as though they were some species of cattle. We are all of us thinking, sensate, emotive beings. Wew are all of us the same human race the world over. And if there are no major biological differences between the various peoples of mankind, what the hell is the far right shouting about?

Four. I'm keying this in just about the time that the State opening of Parliament is taking place. Among the legislation outlined in the Queen's speech is a bill to control immigration. It has been designed by the Tories to save their miserable skins from UKIP,

None of which explains why I think UKIP's stance on immigration is more opportunistic than racist. Certainly, there are closet racists within UKIP, but if any of their official policies peddle the kind of racist filth which organisations to the right of them openly indulge in, I have yet to find it.

And just for the record, I still hate UKIP, and I totally oppose its policy on immigration.