Ceri Jayes, of Lower Warren Road, Kingsbridge, writes:

It seems to me that ‘political correctness’ has now reached the stage where you have to run every comment through a ­censor for fear of offending someone.

While on holiday recently I overheard a grandmother who wanted to express her concerns about the large number of migrants coming into her town being shushed by her daughter and told not to say such things in front of her or her secondary school-age daughter.

This got me thinking. I did some research into the old lady’s fears about the density of the UK’s population. She has grounds for concern.

England has 413 people per square kilometre, while Wales has 149, Northern Ireland 135 and Scotland just 68). Germany has just 233 people per square kilometre, Italy 192 and France 111. On January 1 of this year it was estimated that the UK has almost one in eight of all European residents. Estimated net migration to the UK reached a record 336,000 in the year to June 2015, according to the Office for National Statistics.

Net migration, which is the difference between the number of people arriving and leaving, was 82,000 more than the ­previous year.

One of the main purposes of the census, which is held at great expense on a 10-yearly basis, is to ascertain the size of the population so that plans can be made for building hospitals, surgeries, care homes, roads and the other infrastructure projects. It is also vital to plan for the number of doctors, nurses, ambulance drivers and ­ambulances that will be needed.

Clearly, with a boom in ­population equivalent to the population of a city the size of Coventry added to the 65 ­million people in Britain every year, the development has not kept pace because the boom was not planned for.

The old lady’s concerns are surely justified, but more ­worrying is the fact that it is not politically correct to voice them.

What will be the outcome of this well-documented communist subversion procedure that we call ‘political correctness’?

Taken to its extreme it will undermine democracy, as it restricts free speech and the ability to debate issues in a frank way.

It will force us to stand ­silently and watch our heritage, traditions and culture disappear for fear of being branded ‘racist’, a wholly inappropriate accusation made by those who have no understanding of what racism is.

We must not forget that we took part in two world wars and other conflicts so that we can speak freely and voice ­concerns that affect our country and its future.