PETER HITCHENS: We CAN smash the smuggling gangs. But it���ll cost a lot of money... and pride

This is Peter Hitchens��� Mail on Sunday column

Last week I visited an old colleague who now lives very close to the beaches where migrants come ashore, night and day, along the Channel coast. For her and her neighbours, it has now become usual, though it will never be normal.

She described to me the extraordinary shock of seeing large numbers of young men (most of them are young men), walking confidently ashore and sometimes moving on into the roads and private gardens of those who live close...