”I fear the British heart has turned to ice and now not even God can melt it.”

So quoth Yasmin Alibhai Brown, who surely prays to a very different ‘god’ than most of the British would recognise.

And her issue? Well, what else?

Few Britons know much about the 12 detention centres where migrants and asylum-seekers are held until deported. Even fewer care about what happens there. The poor in our country get little pity or understanding. And foreigners who desperately need our help are seen as a threat, a silent enemy.

Hardly surprising, is it? Look how so many of them turn out.

If this were Zimbabwe or Congo or Syria, Britons would be horrified and vocal. But when the violated from those same countries come to us, outrage is replaced by paranoia: “If we show them kindness, attend to their suffering, give them basic rights, think of the millions who will rush in. How then will we cope?” That must be the psychological defence which comes into play, and I do, in part, sympathise. But remember this: we take hardly any refugees in this country.

Given how you turned out, clearly we’re right not to take more…