BEING single in the “good old days”of the 1960s, I filled my Christmas holidays in by working at hotels in York, Harrogate and Scarborough.

This year, my wife encouraged me to go to a catering staff agency giving me the confidence to do the jobs again, to help out with household expenses. I was amazed to get a four-page application form, even asking my junior school, if I owned a car, and if I was a member of a political party.

Now, am I missing something here? About 40 questions to answer, and yet someone can come in from Romania, Latvia or Poland, and seemingly walk into a job as long as they haven’t got two heads or three arms.

Also, using false documents, hundreds of illegal African immigrants have got work at Kingston Hospital, Surrey, and even as security guards at the Palace of Westminster, and other government buildings.

So much for the pledge “British jobs for British workers”.

Tom Halliwell, Fourth Avenue, York.