British people have a firm belief in fair play and are eager to help people in need. The magnificent response of children, and their parents, to the tsunami appeals, in all of the Egremont schools proves the point . They are ready to recognise in people of distant lands our brothers and sisters. It stakes their claim to be citizens of the world as well as the United Kingdom. All our children have the right to claim that citizenship.

Yet in Egremont schools and nurseries they are actually at a disadvantage because they are likely to meet so few other children of different races and cultures. It is bound to hinder their natural sense of world citizenship. More than one local school has been encouraged to find ways of compensating for this deprivation, which is no fault of the school or the children. Largely for geographical reasons, we have too few immigrant families in Egremont.

Children of immigrant families drive up standards in schools because they tend to be more ambitious and do not take their opportunities for granted. Other children in their schools are likely to be infected by their sense of urgency.

It is not enough to say that we need immigrant doctors, nurses and teachers to keep our health services and schools going. We also need those who will start with ordinary jobs but work hard to acquire new skills and set ambitious targets for their children. They enrich our nation as they always have. As the late Dr Courtney Willey pointed out in our June edition last year, the prosperity and culture of West Cumbria owes a great deal to East European Jews seeking refuge from Nazi persecution before and during the war. Whatever our disagreements with the policies of Michael Howard, there can be no doubt that the arrival of his grandfather enriched our nation, even if he would have been banned as an illegal immigrant by his grandson's policies, and dumped on a large uninhabited island, preferably in shark infested waters.

The true balance sheet of cost and benefit is obscured by the rhetoric of popular tabloids. Last Sunday, "The News of the World" set out to stoke up pre-election fever with its headline, "£8 billion lunatic cost of Asylum." It failed to point out that the "cost" was spread over eight years and totally ignored the benefits to set against the cost. People coming from outside the UK, including asylum seekers, contribute 10% more to the economy, even if you measure it merely by taxes and National Insurance, than they take back in benefits and public services. To put things into perspective, 80,000 asylum seekers received benefits in 2003 compared with 15.5 million Britons. While, most British people believe that we receive 23% of all asylum seekers in this country, the true figure is 2%, while two thirds of all the worlds refugees find shelter in the world's poorest countries.

We do not advocate an open door to immigration and support the Government’s firm measures to crack down on criminal gangs which smuggle in victims to exploit as slave labour. We know that the Tories’ £38 billion of cuts will make it harder to police our borders as effectively. But even in the run up to a General Election we are ready to press our Government to face down prejudice, show stronger political leadership and uphold our values of tolerance and respect.