“Immigrants boost the economy”, is a line from which newspaper’s editorial today?

How many of you guessed the Sun?

Admittedly the "Sun Says" column does go on to complain about the odd person allegedly dodging taxes or working for less than the minimum wage (which is surely the employer’s fault) but is it a sign that Rebecca Wade’s paper is prepared to start embracing immigration?

Maybe not. Turn to page 11 and the main headline of John Gaunt’s (or “Gaunty” as he urges us to call him) column is “Sorry: Fully Up”.

He writes: “Britain is full and it’s time to secure our borders and halt all immigration until we know exactly how many people are living here and where they’ve come from.”

Gaunt, sorry “Gaunty”, is particularly critical of Britain’s decision to allow workers from the EU’s newest member states to work here. To be fair, he also acknowledged that immigration does have its advantages but he then goes on to suggest we should follow France and Germany by now barring EU citizens from eastern Europe from working here.

He should argue the reverse - that France and Germany should lift now their temporary restrictions. Had they and the rest of the EU followed the example of Britain, Ireland and Sweden – the three countries which originally took down their labour barriers – then there would have been a far more even distribution of job-seeking Poles and others in the first place.

In fact, three more countries are now lifting their restrictions, and all Member States have agreed to do so within the next few years. To advocate that we should renege on our commitments and start a stampede in the opposite direction is either ill-informed or wilfully malicious.

Anyway, other than the sheer numbers of immigrants the right-wing newspapers have had very little to complain about - the expansion of the EU has been a success. People have arrived, found jobs, started businesses, made friends, gone to school and contributed significantly to their local economies.

Perhaps an even more significant contribution being made is to Britain’s perceptions of migrants. The EU’s freedom of movement rules allow (afer a transitional period) people from any member state to work in any other member state. This has usually promoted tolerance, understanding and started eroding xenophobia.

There is still much to do but when a Sun editorial gives a nod of approval, however reticently, to freedom of movement in the EU there is hope yet.