I refer to Sushila Dhall's letter, Poor hosts (Oxford Mail, March 13). It is true that there is concern by the British people, mainly the working class, over the huge number of people coming from other countries to live in Britain.

I, like every other who has lived here all our lives, have had to work and pay National Insurance contributions for 44 years (in the case of womenfolk, 39 years) to qualify for a full state pension, pittance as it is.

Part of our contributions pay for our NHS, so when people come from countries in the EU and have a right to free NHS care, pension credits and child benefit, even if their children are still in their mother country and have yet to pay into the system, who can blame us for being alarmed?

Why, when these countries are in the EU, can't they introduce welfare systems and improve standards of living?

We pay billions into the euro piggy bank, as do some of the other EU countries, so why can't this wealth be distributed to the poorer ones and improve lifestyles there?

Yes, there are lots of criminals over here from some of these countries. Just look at the child sex slaves who are abducted - some even sold by their own parents - the drug barons, and the gangmasters who make loads of money out of their own countrymen while they live in squalor over here.

I agree with Ms Dhall that our great British empire exploited those colonised countries and raped them of their wealth.

But that was the work of the governments of that time and the filthy rich, not us concerned working class.

Even our own were hanged or sent to the colonies for stealing a loaf of bread.

Now, if you murder someone, you are sent to a holiday camp.

I don't blame anyone coming here for a better lifestyle - I blame the system which allows such an influx of people when our welfare is fast becoming overwhelmed and we are being bled dry by our own Government to pay for it all.

MICHAEL CLARKE Lewell Avenue Old Marston Oxford