IN reply to your article concerning the Russian asylum seeker (LET, March 27), I can sympathise with his plight.

But if everyone with a gripe should up and leave their particular country, to head for soft, idiot-governed England, where would that leave us?

Surely, it is our right to expect that the Government cares for its own needy before it even considers adding more citizens to an already overcrowded, underfunded, crumbling country.

After the budget, the married man's tax allowance was abolished. My personal loss will be approximately £50 per month. Where am I to find this deficit? My bills and mortgage will not be reduced -- in fact they will increase.

Will Russia, Afghanistan or any other squabbling country give me a handout to make ends meet? I do not think so.

In future, wouldn't it be nice if our councillors had a referendum to ask us whether or not we want these surplus people, who have overburdened London and Kent. Are we so rich that we will not be overburdened?

If they had not been allowed to enter our country in the first place and were made to leave in the same transport they used to get here, we would not have this problem in the first place.

Get your act together -- we are being peacefully invaded. The meek shall inherit the earth!

S DAVIS, Farmhouse Close, Blackburn.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.