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'Fear shouldn't drive policy', says reader
I came to the UK from Pakistan just over four years ago with a simple intention – to build a life here by contributing to the community around me. Since then, I have volunteered with six organisations, some of which I’m still supporting alongside my full-time job.
I’ve paid taxes from the moment I arrived and done all I can to integrate.
But home secretary Shabana Mahmood’s proposed changes to Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR) have hit hard. Extending the qualifying period from five years to ten years and beyond feels like the finish line is being pushed further and further away. It’s painful that, despite everything I have done, I might still be waiting more than a decade to fully participate.
I was preparing to stand as a councillor, but without ILR, that door is closed. And if volunteering, working, contributing, paying taxes and engaging in public life isn’t considered ‘integration’ then what is?
These changes don’t just delay residency, they delay ambition, belonging, and the chance to contribute fully. They make people like me feel as though no level of commitment will ever be enough. They discourage participation and punish commitment.
Fear shouldn’t drive policy, yet that’s exactly what seems to be happening. Muhammad Qasim, Reading
Is the NHS dysfunctional?
Dr Zigmond (MetroTalk, Fri) says we need to accept that our longer lives and rapidly advancing but more costly medical technology mean the NHS will become an increasing drain on our taxes. My view is the ‘free for all at the point of use’ model for the NHS has long been unsustainable and means testing should be introduced so those who can afford it can help replenish the NHS’ coffers, thus reducing waiting lists.
I am French and went back to live in France for 12 years and what I dreaded most in coming back to the UK was the overstretched NHS.
The French model is an intermediate solution, where the core cost is free and everyone contributes towards the rest, unless they are too poor or suffer from a very serious complaint.
We subscribe to private cover for anything above the core costs and my husband had three operations in a clinic that cost no more than it would at the local hospital. Besides, once a consultant decided an operation was required, he checked his diary and gave an instant date, which was usually a month later!
I would much rather contribute more to my healthcare than have to pay at least £17,000 at a private hospital if I needed a hip replacement – but no government is prepared to take such a step, having too much concern about winning the next election. M-C Orton, Newcastle-upon-Tyne
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‘The US electorate gave Trump a mandate over Americans, not Europeans’, reader says
Donald Trump’s attack on ‘weak’ Europe (Metro, Wed) demands a simple question – who elected him to lecture sovereign democracies about their choices?
The US electorate gave Trump a mandate over Americans – not Europeans, not our parliaments, our voters, nor our elected leaders – yet he behaves as if winning Wisconsin somehow makes him Europe’s political overseer. Europe’s democracies answer to European voters.
We don’t take our cue from whoever yells loudest on Fox News or threatens allies in a Truth Social rant.
America remains a vital ally but friendship doesn’t mean submission, Donald. Henry Broadbent, via email
Reader says Trump has ‘given massive help to Ukraine’
I’ve never read so many inaccurate letters as those criticising Trump over his US National Security Strategy (MetroTalk, Tue).
He has brought about a tenuous ceasefire in the Middle East, just stopped another India-Pakistan war and stopped the mass influx of illegal immigrants into the US when we here cannot stop the flood of small boats.
The biased letters you published make no mention of the massive help given to Ukraine by the US – without whom Ukraine would, I suggest, no longer be able to continue the war.
If people think Nato could match Russia without the US, dream on.
Those letters were by a group of people who just wanted to slag off Trump and the US – it does not reflect well on you that you chose to publish them. Sidney Sands, London
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