Howard Hodgson is entertaining for, if nothing else, his scattergun invective from which no one is safe except our exemplary Queen and the adulterous Charles.

However, he does bang on the same drum set and, not for the first time, last Sunday (TMIS, 6 January) he went on about how Britain is now such a basket case that “British citizens are leaving its shores by the millions”.

Coincidentally, that same weekend my favourite London paper carried a report on “Emigrate”, the largest migration exhibition in Britain. The reporter got so depressed surrounded by so many fed up people wanting to leave the country that, desperate to get away, he rushed out and got into the first mini-cab to find that the driver was also down in the dumps because of the visitors’ unhappiness.

“Everyone’s been so miserable,” he remarked. “I’ll tell you what, we’re better off without that whingeing lot. Give me the immigrants any day.”

That should make Howard and his ilk on the island choke on their Sunday morning cornflakes.

Alex P. Galea

WOKING - SURREY

ENGLAND