The article headed "Demonstrators call on MP to end asylum hysteria" (The Argus, February 8) cannot pass without comment.

The picture showed demonstrators from the Brighton and Hove Committee to Defend Asylum-Seekers, of which Professor Raphael Salkie, Rebecca Shtasel and Andy Player are members.

In a previous article (June 13, 2002), when the same group protested at the Harmondsworth Detention Centre, The Argus described the protesters as "a group of Sussex activists" and "activists" are exactly what they are.

Anybody having any doubt about this should read Mr Player's articles in the Socialist Worker.

I and many others who have contributed to the Saltdean Info Website received an unsolicited email from Professor Salkie, who had unsuccessfully tried to assert that the BNP had been present at the demonstration outside the Grand Ocean Hotel, Saltdean, some weeks ago.

When this accusation failed to stick, he tried to assert that he and his family had been subjected to abuse at the demo.

He has made great play of the only small incident at the demo, where a member of the pro-lobby was the aggressor.

Who is doing the "scaremongering" and who is trying to whip up hysteria now, Professor Salkie? The people of Saltdean are sound, logical people and are not prone to hysteria.

Professor Salkie and his organisation are the ones trying to whip up racial unrest in a racially tolerant community so they can say "I told you so, they are all racists" to advance their own political agenda, which does not have as its main theme the welfare of asylum-seekers.

-David Elliott, Ashdown Avenue, Saltdean