Sir – In his end-of-year message (Craven Herald, January 2) Julian Smith MP fails to touch on many of the current issues of real concern to his constituents apart from local planning.

By regularly attending Parliament and only occasionally rebelling against his Government, I assume, therefore, that he would accept a measure of collective responsibility for its performance.

What are, I wonder, his thoughts on the cost of living crisis which is rising faster than anywhere in Europe, with soaring food and energy bills blamed yet, despite this, his Government is spending a larger share of its wealth on foreign aid than any other G8 member nation, despite making huge spending cuts at home.

Yes, and all this whilst the super-rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer. For the first time there were more working households living in poverty last year than non-working ones; even the number of people relying on foodbanks has tripled in a year. And what does he think about the fact that Britain’s population is now soaring by more than any other country in the European Union and that his Party have utterly failed in its promise to reduce immigration to ‘tens of thousands’. Uncontrolled immigration is putting enormous pressure on housing, hospitals, schools, policing, welfare services and jobs, with even more pressure added by the lifting of work restrictions to Romanian and Bulgarian citizens from January 1, 2014.

And that’s not all. The EU has just signed an agreement which opens the way, within three years, for lifting visa requirements for Turkish citizens travelling to EU countries – even though Turkey is not yet near to joining the EU. In addition, Tony Blair has recently been appointed to advise Albania about the entry process to the EU. Sadly, there are no reports that he will be moving there! Finally, what news is there about those powers that he and his party were going to negotiate back from Brussels when they were seeking our vote in May 2010?

Better not hold our breath on that one, as it appears that promise was only ever intended for the credulous.

A J A Smith, UKIP Yorkshire Dales secretary, Cowling