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		Letter to the Editor Nottingham Evening Post - Wednesday, 11 December 2002 Dear Sir At a recent debate in Broxtowe with local Labour MP Nick Palmer, I raised my concerns about the possibility of mass immigration into Britain from Central and Eastern European countries following EU enlargement, scheduled for 2004. Nick accused me of scare-mongering, because, he said, there would be long transitional arrangements to contain immigration, as there had been during previous waves of enlargement, such as when Spain and Portugal joined the EU. Yesterday, Foreign Minister Jack Straw announced that although transitional arrangements would be available, and would be taken up by major countries like Germany, France and Italy, Britain had decided to waive its right to these transitional controls, and to admit whoever wants to come immediately from the ten new countries joining. He calls this "managed immigration", though many Nottingham voters may think it amounts to a failure to manage immigration. We are a small, crowded island, and current high levels of immigration are putting great strain on vital services. Jack Straw — and Nick Palmer — should explain why Labour has chosen to waive rights that are available to them in the treaties, and which could have been used to control this potential problem. Yours sincerely, Roger Helmer MEP