If you’ve a grip on the Calais migrant crisis Philip Hammond, why don’t you come take a look?
We British know how to queue, that is without a doubt. But last Wednesday I was sitting in a cab in Calais next to a lorry driver from Yorkshire in one of the most unpleasant queues of my life, while gangs of young men wandered past us eyeing up which UK bound lorry they thought would be best to break into.
I was grateful for the £600 deadbolts which protect the drivers because all the while the lorries are stuck with nowhere to go waiting to board the Channel Tunnel trains, the small barriers either side separating the freight slip road from the fields are easy for the 20-something-year-olds to jump across.
I climbed the barrier myself. If a 61-year-old can do it, it is no problem for a 20-year-old. The government’s commitment to building a fence clearly is not doing the job.
Lorry drivers waiting to board cross channel transport are unprotected by police or security measures such as this fencing: Philip Hammond might say he has a grip on the crisis but from where I was sitting it was clear these gangs are in charge of Calais.
The evening before we had driven through the residential district of Frethun, where the train tracks run between the tunnel's terminal and the coast. There was not a local person to be seen when the sun went down. In fact, even during the daytime you could not see many outside the central areas of Calais.
But these young men swaggering towards the fields where only a plastic fence divides Calais from the route to England had no such fears. Glaring into our car as we drove past, it looked to me like they were giving orders on where the fences had been breached and where the security was lax.
We saw movements in the shadows as a group of around 25 men emerged and we turned on the engine and headlights to usher them away. We were clearly more bothered about protecting the border than the security forces: they didn’t even move.
This isn't just an immigration crisis: it's a security crisis and a serious strain for local authorities.
I went to Calais to see the situation for myself and I find it disgraceful that senior government figures haven't left their plush, comfortable offices to do the same when the country is crying out for action.
If you've such a grip on it, Mr Hammond, then there should be no problem in you getting aboard Eurostar and having a look for yourself.