I was surprised to see a letter castigating the government, for raising the minimum wage for jobs eligible to employ immigrants.

I agree with the writer, that this government is useless, but this is a long overdue measure. Yes, it will affect the NHS, farming, care and hospitality sectors, but it is necessary.

We have in this country, between nine and 10 million people of working age, who for various reasons are not working.

We can assume most of these people are on some form of benefits, this a tremendous drain on the finances of this country.

Yet to compound the problem, we import people to do the low-paid jobs, the unemployed won't do.

And the result of this, is that it keeps the wage levels low. For high-salary people, such as doctors, for years we have been importing them, as this is cheaper than training our own.

This is not fair on the countries, who have trained and lost them, or our own aspiring doctors.

There are also some problems, when English is not a first language. It's time we got people off benefits and working, for this we need an extensive training programme, to fill the vacancies.

It won't be easy, as there seems to be a stigma attached to taking menial jobs.

This must be overcome, who knows some people may find a new career.

David White

Coates Close

Basingstoke

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