The Old Bill should just play it straight

THE five young men who died tragically off Camber Sands were Sri Lankans down on a day trip from London, not illegal immigrants who’d tried to cross from France — as was first thought.

It is easy to see how some people jumped to confusions, since Camber Sands is only 20 miles along the coast from Dymchurch, where people smugglers recently tried to put 18 Albanians ashore.

Kent police didn’t help by doing their usual ‘no comment’ routine. All they would say was that the men were ‘dressed for the beach’. Most of the illegal migrants at Calais are ‘dressed for the beach’.

I was in the City of London on Wednesday and half the people on the streets looked as if they were dressed for the beach, too. If the Old Bill were a little more open, people wouldn’t jump to conclusions.