I AM much amused by Pete Winstanley’s claim that “people should be free to raise their genuine and valid worries about immigration” without being labelled racists (HAS, June 1).

Having been personally accused by Mr Winstanley of racism because of my views on immigration, I find his claim thoroughly hypocritical.

However, if he is now undertaking to behave in a more civilised way and stop insulting anyone who disagrees with him on immigration, that is a step forward.

But I’m not optimistic.

Moreover, there is not even any logical connection between opposition to current immigration levels and racism (not that I’d expect logic from the politically correct). Racism is defined in my Oxford dictionary as “the belief that one race is superior to another or antagonism based on the latter belief”.

Thus the claim that opponents of immigration are racist is as daft as claiming that people who don’t want daffodils in their garden think daffodils are inferior to other flowers, or that they are antagonistic towards daffodils.

Ralph Musgrave, Durham.