You have people trying to enter this country by crossing the Channel in small boats. I think that we can all agree that this is not a safe thing to do.

It appears that those arriving this way are paying criminal gangs for their passage. I think we can agree that this is not a good thing.

It is reported that some of those arriving this way do not have any documentation with them. Why is that?

They set off from France. How did they get to France? Have they already claimed refugee status in another EU country?

It was reported last month that there were 160,000 people here in the UK awaiting for their refugee status to be denied or confirmed. No doubt that will include most of the over 40,000 who arrived by boat last year. It also seems that the majority of those 160,000 will eventually be allowed to remain in the UK.

I can understand why people want to come to the UK. For all we might moan about it, this is still a good country to come to. I think that most would agree that we have to have some sort of control over who is allowed to enter and for how long they can stay. The rest of the world operates in much the same way.

How then do we deal with it? I have said before that I don't think I could do a job that decided who stays and who goes.

Iive in Dover. I know people who work for Border Force and people who work for refugee charities. I know people who volunteer for the RNLI. In fact the current situation has brought jobs to this part of the South East.

Now we have the latest so called solution from the Tories. I will be surprised if it makes much difference. We shall wait and see. I don't have a 'solution'. I cannot say that i have seen any sensible answer so far.

The end of last year I went for a walk on the seafront. It was the morning after a boat sank in the channel and there were fears many lives had been lost. The pier and part of the seafront had been closed by the authorities. They had been expecting to bring in the bodies of those that had drowned. As it turned out, there were fewer casualties than expected.

As I walked back I noticed a guy with his child in a pushchair, out for a walk. He had not been able to walk along the closed pier so he headed in the direction from where i had just come. I stopped him and pointed out that area was also closed. He asked me why and I told him what I thought the reason was. He had not heard the news. He thanked me and we both went on our way.

The guy was not from the UK. As I walked away I felt a bit guilty. There was the two of us, 3 if you include his child, out for a walk on a cold, sunny morning, while out there in the channel people were searching for the bodies of some poor souls.

I still don't know the best way to 'deal' with it.