Madam,

Jean Miles (Cambrian News Letters, 7 July) makes the same mistake as many Leave supporters when she refers to the original basis for setting up of the EU and the fact that it is migrants who have created the pressure on public services and housing.

The facts of history are that freedom of movement of ‘workers’ was a fundamental principle of the EU when it was established in 1957 and this was confirmed in 1992 by the Maastricht Treaty, which extended the principle to create the concept of ‘EU Citizenship’. Britain opted out of the ‘Schengen Agreements’ created at that time which abolished all internal border controls in the participating countries for the very reason she states, namely that we wished to retain some control of our borders.

I recently travelled across Europe to Hungary by car and crossed many national borders in the process and can verify that, even in these days of heightened awareness of migration in and across Europe, I did not have to negotiate a single border control in all the 1,000 or so miles travelled other than when leaving and returning to the UK.

Migrants have significantly benefitted our country, helping to provide and maintain basic services (including the NHS), paying taxes on their income and purchasing goods and services locally. If we wish to look to apportion blame for the breakdown of public services we need look no further than the austerity coalition since 2010 and the present Conservative government, who are ideologically opposed to the concept of public services and who are setting about dismantling them piece by piece rather than forward planning for population mobility.

In Wales we have problems filling vacancies in all areas, especially health, locally we have a shortage of GP’s, nurses, teachers, plumbers, electricians, the list goes on, as the problem here is emigration (especially of the young) not migration. Furthermore, I also find the language used abhorrent, who does Jean include in ‘us’ and ‘ourselves’, as I am an immigrant, coming to Wales from England and consider myself a European. Which camp am I in?

Yours etc

Phil Griffiths

Arthog