How can it have come to this, that British citizens, paying their own way in well-appointed hotels, find that they are sharing their accommodation with newly arrived migrants, in many cases here by illegal means, supplied with all they need by taxpayers’ money?

At the same time, The Mail on Sunday reveals the existence of a government website advertising the benefits available – again at the taxpayers’ expense – to anyone who can get here and claim to be a refugee. They can even apply for free spectacles, the better to fill in the forms for more benefits.

These facts are as astonishing to the new arrivals as they are to British citizens. That is why there is a perpetual camp at Calais, of people prepared to risk their lives to reach what they regard as the migrants’ El Dorado.

Migrants Adam, right, and Muhammad relax at the three-star Best Western Park Hall hotel in Lancashire

Who can blame them, who does blame them, when they can hope for such a welcome? The only surprise is that there are not more lithe young men and women trying to cut their way through the flimsy fences that guard the Eurotunnel terminal, or to weave past the ineffectual and uninterested French police.

But even more remarkable is the paralysis and fumbling of successive British governments – the current one no better than its forerunners, clearly groping for some cosmetic measures in the hope that it will all die down and they can go on holiday in peace.

They should not be allowed to get away with this. Someone should take charge, and firmly. The migrants are being placed in hotels because the proper reception centres are full, a clear sign that things have gone too far.

Much of Kent is at a standstill because of what can truly be called a crisis. Businesses all over Britain are suffering severe losses. But above all, the people of Britain are starting to feel that their country’s borders are no longer under control – that anyone who tries hard enough to get in, will do so, and then become a charge on the State.

Drivers wait next to their parked lorries on the M20 motorway, which leads from London to the Channel Tunnel terminal at Ashford and the Ferry Terminal at Dover

Those who blithely say that we should relax and let everyone in are usually those who live far from the areas where new migrants settle. Their jobs are not threatened by cheap labour and they can afford to pay more tax, unlike those many families struggling to feed, clothe and house themselves on two small incomes.

Their piety appears creditable, but it is one thing to be a Good Samaritan and quite another to tell other people to be Good Samaritans.

The truth is that, if we let everyone in who wanted to come, we would destroy the prosperity and order which bring them here in the first place. It is neither callous nor bigoted to wonder why, if these newcomers are refugees, they did not seek asylum in the other free countries they crossed on the way here.

As well as reinforcing our own side of the Calais fences swiftly and efficiently, let us end our nation’s reputation for naïve generosity. To anyone who arrives here from France or Italy, let us offer benefits and help no greater than they would have received in those countries.