THE disclosure that hundreds of asylum seekers and illegal immigrants are enjoying a free shopping service delivering groceries to their door at the taxpayers' expense will, no doubt, cheer up the thousands of British housewives struggling home in the rain on the bus with a pile of bulging carrier bags and a pair of fractious kids in a pushchair.

This scheme is currently employed by one London council at a cost of £700,000 a year, by a couple of others in the capital and one in Birmingham paying out half as much again, while elsewhere in the West Midland refugees are accompanied by "personal shoppers" on their visits to the supermarket to ensure that the public handouts are spent, as intended, on essentials.

But is not the "Come to Britain" advertisement in it spelled out in letters a mile high to every economic immigrant flooding here?

If we want to ensure that those seeking a better life in Britain are not just out to milk our welfare system, should not the message be that no handouts at all, let alone assistance on how to spend them, are on offer to new arrivals in Britain.

In addition none should be available to anyone who cannot show a continuous contribution to the welfare state for at least ten years.

If that was the case, I am sure that we would have no need for these costly devices allowing foreign claimants to shop by phone or under supervision - because they would have got the message that this country is not a soft touch.

As it is, we are telling them precisely the opposite - and they are queuing up in droves with their sob stories.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.