In short, my views are those of most of my fellow countrymen, white, brown and black. I believe - again in common with most of my fellow countrymen, if polls and anecdotal evidence are any guide - that immigration has been running at too high a rate, and seems likely to continue to do so.

Too high for what?

Too high for the well-being of the majority of people in this country, and too high also for the immigrants who are coming here.

According to projections by government statisticians, under present trends the population of this country will rise by five million, from 60 million, over the next ten years, and exceed 70 million by 2031. They say that at least 70 per cent of this increase would be attributable to immigration. These projections do not seem to be excessive since they are shared by reputable academics.

They may even err on the cautious side. We learnt yesterday that one in seven prison inmates is foreign-born. It would be racist to infer that immigrants are more likely to commit crimes than native Britons.

I also doubt that the police and courts are targeting immigrants while letting off home-grown crooks. Might it be that the level of immigration has been even higher than official statistics admit, and that in urban areas one in seven accurately reflects the proportion of recent immigrants to people who have been born in the country?

At all events, we can surely agree that immigration has been running at an unprecedentedly high rate. It is also undeniable that this has been taking place without popular consent.

How could there have been such consent, given that the Government itself has greatly underestimated the size of the influx? It expected fewer than 20,000 East Europeans, and perhaps as many as a million have turned up.

Much has been written about how high levels of immigration have placed, and will go on doing so, enormous strains on our infrastructure. Fifteen cities the size of Birmingham would have to be built over the next 25 years if we were to accommodate the projected numbers.

This, in a country which already has one of the highest population densities in the world, and where the housing stock, already in short supply, seems most unlikely to keep pace with demand.

These are powerful arguments.