MARK Walker is right about the huge inbuilt advantage that the political party in power has (HAS, Dec 18). Here is an example.

The Labour Party has long claimed that immigrants pay £2.5bn a year more in tax than they draw from the public purse. The latest Government/Labour Party glossy publication to claim this is The Economic and Fiscal Impact of Immigration published in October by the Home Office (accompanying fanfare paid by taxpayers).

But significantly, no civil servant or government economist has claimed authorship of this work.

This is unusual: economists and other professionals are normally keen to claim authorship. It helps their careers.

What happened here? Did Home Office economists realise they would have been the laughing stock of their profession had they claimed authorship of such a blatantly political document? (Incidentally, it's available on the internet).

The above £2.5bn "immigrant fiscal contribution" is actually nonsense because it completely ignores the billions it costs to provide hospitals, schools, roads, etc, for immigrants. But mere facts never got in the way of politicians using taxpayers' money for their own political ends.

Ralph Musgrave, Durham.