A few weeks ago, at the checkout of a department store close to the seafront in Dover, I overheard a mildly alarming exchange between the person in front of me in the queue and the shop assistant. My fellow customer was explaining that she now kept a cricket bat by her front door in response to recent reports that young men who had recently crossed the Channel illegally were entering homes in the Aycliffe area of the town.
The small boats crisis has dropped out of the headlines recently, but crossings have continued on a large scale throughout the mild autumn and are only dropping off now due to a cold snap and the lack of light. The crisis is still very much a problem and now high on the political agenda, with the government planning to possibly introduce new legislation in an attempt to address it, legislation which church leaders are likely to criticise.
