Immigrants more British than I am

I AM very proud of being Scottish and British – although to be fair, I had little choice in the matter.

I was born here and I don’t think I was ever given the option of being French or Italian or Jamaican.

That is why I often think that people who choose to live here perhaps have a greater right to do so than I have. They thought about it, saved up, travelled and arrived. I just woke up here.

Which is why the idea that people who came here half a century ago from the West Indies – the Windrush generation – might be deported is so distressing.

People who choose to live here, have worked hard and built communities, are the fabric of this country.

It is also why the ‘rivers of blood’ speech by Enoch Powell, pictured, so spectacularly failed. It was, in essence, anti-British.

We are a union of nations bound together but each keeping our own identities. Our history – not unalloyed good, I grant you – is one of internationalism.

Immigration has not eroded this country but reinforced it in ways that our politicians are too frightened to acknowledge.

But if we believe that being British is about having values then it would be ridiculous to reject anyone who wants to share them. Many of the people threatened with deportation are more British than I am. And I ain’t

going anywhere. Neither should they.