IRONIC that the UKIP leader, with his usual anti-EU rhetoric, should have been given such a warm reception in Cornwall, a county which has benefited more than most from European largesse.

Our region received £350-million from Objective 1 funding and is now getting a further £347-million from the European Regional Fund plus £153-million from the European Social Fund.  

Without EU funding there would be no University of Falmouth, no Peninsula Dental School in Truro  and no 99% super-broadband coverage across the county. Nigel Farage's attack on immigration was equally inappropriate given our region's dependence on immigrants from within and without the EU  to pick our daffodils and vegetables, staff our hospitals, care homes, hotels and restaurants and provide increasing numbers of students in our institutes of higher education.

These workers and students are not benefit scroungers flooding in to benefit from our welfare state  as portrayed by UKIP. They are here to work and study and contribute massively to the region's economy.

Malcolm Bower

Newsletter Editor

European Movement Tamar branch