MR Timbrell is right insofar as immigrants have a right of appeal against a deportation order. I too have been involved with these. But I can never remember a failed appellant being handed cash to purchase his own ticket.

This is what I mean by misinformation. The last time I was involved with someone who was deported he was held in custody before being put on a plane. In another case, the person concerned purchased his own ticket.

Secondly, there is muddled thinking by those who mix up the issue of illegal immigration with that of the EU. Migration from other EU countries may be thought to be undesirable but it is rarely illegal. 

I think Mr Timbrell is being a little disingenuous when he reels off the cost to the tax payer of "immigration".

Statistics show that the cost is relatively small as most migrants work and pay their way. The same is true for most immigrants from the EU.

Indeed I understand British recruitment agencies are already busy in the Baltic states and Romania because foreign citizens will do the jobs young Brits don't want, especially in the NHS, care homes, restaurants and hotels.

As one who has studied the social sciences for several decades I hate simplistic analogies. They only ever make the point the creator wants them to make and rarely do much else.

The British Isles is not a bus: our society is far more sophisticated. As a nation we require immigrants to help fuel our economy and support our workforce – even Boris Johnston understands this.

No point in getting on John Timbrell's bus if there is no diesel in the tank,   driver in the cab or tyres on the wheels.

I think in such a debate as this we in the UK should try to be less arrogant in our arguments and careful in our wording.

From the 17th to the mid 20th centuries our nation took a lead in the invasion and colonising of many lands - "the Empire where the sun never set". Great Britain also played a leading role in the slave trade: moving black people across the globe to the plantations of the Caribbean and the Americas - slavery is 'our Holocaust'.

I guess most of the people we engaged didn't like us much and weren't too keen on our manners.

We didn't arrive in their lands and demand welfare: we arrived and demanded the whole country! It is no excuse to bleat, "that was in the past".

No, we cannot change the past but we can be a little more generous towards others from across the seas.

– Mark Parry, Coleford.