I read the excellent article by fellow Dutch immigrant Prof Jasper Kenter with interest (Guest Column, Cambrian News 22 April). His predecessors escaped from Nazi Germany, mine lived under Nazi occupation. The Dutch suffered but many of them were brave, very brave.

Discrimination of people seen as different, whether Jews, Muslims or another religion, whether gay or transgender, or of a minority ethnicity, it’s wrong. We’re all human. In my many years living in the UK I’ve come across some ugly behaviour towards ‘others’, fortunately only displayed by a minority. Unfortunately, the likes of Nigel Farage are capable of whipping up feelings of ignorance and fear into a frenzy of hatred.

There are hidden attitudes though that need exploring. We, white people in the West – this is not the preserve of the UK alone – expect immigrants to carry out the kind of jobs we no longer wish to do. From fruit picking to the care industry, despite being skilled labour, the pay is minimal. Care work is still regarded as women’s work, who are deemed to be innately capable of such work, and women are still somewhere down the hierarchy.

Thank goodness much has changed in that regard. However, when it comes to manufacturing, we are happy to buy cheaper goods that have been made abroad by those who will work for less and accept poorer environmental and safety standards. As a result the UK’s carbon emissions look good and other countries, especially China, are vilified as bad polluters. Our UK consumption ought to be included in the emissions total but politicians prefer good news stories, not ones that show us up as failing.

And looking good on the international stage is ingrained in the national psyche. We expect to have better PISA scores (which measures educational achievements) than others. We want our children to be better educated than those in other countries. The UK thinks it deserves to be the best in all sorts of sporting competitions from the Olympic Games to the World Cup. Of course with the PISA scores and sports it gets complicated as countries within the UK compete against one another. National pride can even extend to cheering Mo Salah if he can bring home a trophy, even though bananas are still thrown on football pitches at black players.

Attitudes towards anybody seen as not belonging here range from derogatory comments to outright violence. They are stoked by the likes of Farage and Robinson but what are the origins? Why do ‘we’ feel we are or ought to be better than ‘them’? Within the UK there are similar divisions relating to class. Inequalities are deeply embedded. It matters where you live, what kind of job you do, what school you attend and which university your degree is from. Lucky the child that’s brought up in a leafy suburb, whose parents can afford to send them to a lovely private school because dad is a stockbroker, enhancing their child’s chances to get into Oxbridge or a Red Brick university which improves their chances of getting a well-paid job.

I wish to know why in 2026 there’s still this awful urge to divide our population and education establishments into different classes and, by inference, keep them there. Gaining a level C at GCSE or an A at A-level should be of equal value wherever you take it. And a degree should be a degree. The snobbery in this country is suffocating.

All this inequality leads to anger and resentment. There are moments when things boil over and awful riots hit the streets. We do know that much of this anger is due to feelings of deep insecurity. That’s when ‘others’ are seen as a threat to jobs and a threat to the dominant culture.

Certain communities have organically become predominantly of one particular religion. This current ghettoisation is not helpful. But ghettos have existed in the UK for many years. They are more related to household income. Housing inequality won’t be solved by the building of more social housing if we don’t tackle such deep-seated attitudes. The term social housing itself could be regarded as derogatory if the tenants are deemed to be in need of social security and social services, even seen as pariahs by the rest of society. Just look at attitudes in New Quay towards Barcud’s proposals to build social housing in the centre.

I’ve knocked on many doors during the election. On large estates quite a few houses have been bought by the tenants and these estates have ‘gentrified’. Many renters live in homes that are desperate for an upgrade as they’re cold and damp. Their bills are among the highest. To understand why so many voters turn to Reform, we have to get to grips with all these underlying inequalities and sort them. Otherwise, the immigrants will remain the scapegoats.