FRANK FIELD has been the MP for Birkenhead for 25 years. The visit of a group of pensioners to his surgery some eight years ago ‘is indelibly etched on my memory’, he writes. ‘Nothing had prepared me for the description of what they were enduring...

On 1 May, the European Union will have 75 million new inhabitants—and ten new member nations, bringing its total to 25. The ‘rich man’s club’ is opening its doors to its less wealthy neighbours—amid muttering from many of those already ensconced in its comfortable armchairs. It may seem strange—even presumptuous—for a publication based in the UK to welcome the new arrivals. To the rest of Europe, Britain has sometimes seemed an awkward member of the club, carping about the rules, resisting change and casting aspersions on everyone else. Although our government championed the enlargement, the prospect has sparked a xenophobia in some quarters which is matched only by attitudes to asylum seekers and refugees.