What sort of Christmas message is this?

According to statistics just released, the UK is now a more Catholic country than an Anglican one. It's not conversions like Anne Widdecombe's or Tony Blair's which has tipped the balance, but the high proportion of church-goers among the people from Poland who have come here to work.

This sense of Christian solidarity does not extend to the authorities, who are quite prepared to force the Williams family of Swansea to return to virtually certain violent recrimination in Pakistan, because of their faith.

The episode illustrates the inhuman inconsistency in Britain's immigration policy. The Home department has targets of repatriation to meet. It is understaffed and short on skills, so it is the "low-hanging fruit" which is plucked. People who have set down roots in the community, and therefore have a fixed address, are grabbed in dawn raids. Those illegal immigrants, with no genuine concerns about persecution, who are less traceable, including a criminal element, are not successfully pursued.

Frank Little