If we are no longer a nation, i am delighted, it was an artificial and divisive construct anyway, it resulted in wars, imperial domination and a lot of wasted energy and enthusiasm.
I want to be a citizen of the world, not some little part of it.
I welcome all those people, wherever they come from, who want to obey the law, make a positive contribution to economic success, and get along with their neighbours. And as that set of criteria applies to almost all of the immigrants coming into Britain, their arival can only make this a happier and more prosperous set of islands.

Steve Biddlecombe, Cardiff, Wales

Leigh, it is time for a change. We cannot keep encouraging population growth to fund pensions and support the economy. It is simply unsustainable. Why try to tackle global warming and environmental problems at the same time as encouraging congestion? Why try to build communities and encourage citizens to engage with and support their neighbours when we have such an unprecedented upheaval in the population? How does population density affect the frabric of society and levels of crime? It is not xenophobic to ask these questions, please stop chanting socialist mantra, name calling does not help an open discussion of the issues.

Jack, Chelmsford,

"In a few more generations, the English will be a minority in their own country. "

The English don't exist. They're a mish-mash of imports anyway. The original inhabitants of Britain were driven out by the Celts a long time ago, then the Celts were bullied by the Anglo-Saxons, and then there were these people from Normandy ... Immigration is a fact of life, always has been.

This country's troubles aren't the fault of immigrants, but it's much easier to point a finger than to actually DO something, innit.

starling, Lancaster,

Dear R Parry, in a hundred years time your descendants will be in Australia and the true Brits will be today's immigrants - people like me. Shucks, how I miss the old fifties England with no drugs, no benefits culture, reliable plumbers, a working class culture of working and small schools where pupils knew the meaning of discipline. Bring back the un-cool Britannia - or is it just that I've ot old?

Marni, Crouch End ,

Britain absolutely does not need large numbers of immigrants. It needs least of all immigrants who are unwilling to assimilate even partially to the Western values they despise. But British elites are craven worshippers of political correctness and moral relativism as well as haters of everything British, and so they reflexively defend the multiculturalist doublethink that is destroying the West.

Dr. Bob, Chicago, USA

Good point, Jamie Wallace. I defy any of the below (and presumably soon - above) to deny that they have any Irish, French, Roman, Scandinavian, etc blood in them and that they are not directly descended from the druids. I mean really!! As if we have nothing to gain..

However if all the so-called patriots who complain about immigration whilst living off the welfare state and doing nothing to budge their butts out from behind their day-time tvs would decide to emigrate to, say Greenland, I would have nothing against it. Perhaps the Danes and the majority of the polar bears might, but hey, should've tightened up immigration.

Clive Burghard, if you really think that Great Britain is better off closing its doors to the outside world and insisting on fighting its battles alone, then you have as much sense as an ostrich sensing something incoming.

It frightens me that people this ignorant and short-sighted nevertheless have access to the internet and are allowed a keyboard.

blec (1/2 Irish, 3/8 English, 1/8 Belgian), Paris, France

Mr Milner mentioned Japan,

Japan: 310 people/Kmº
England: 380 people/Kmº

To have a chaotic immigration system for such an already crowded place will mean higher house prices, congested roads, towns starting to resemble scenes from 'Blade Runner', development of the countryside, degradation of the environment.

Whatever the short-term economic benefits, it will make it a worse place to live in.

Dave Hodgson, Royston, Herts

It allways make,s me laugh how the last person to move into a house in a village is usually the first to sign a petition against new housing being built there.
Can somebody tell me if i am english please , my grandfather was irish, so maybe i am not yet considered a true englishman yet, even though i served 8 year,s in the army for this country (twice in northern ireland ironically).
maybe you have to be able to trace your roots right back to france to qualify.
tThis country has always been a country of immigrant,s, it is why britain becaim Great britain, it is also why the indigenous britons immigrated to france ..Brittany.

patrick Duffy, shipley, west yorkshire

I'm emigrating in December, I cant wait. The soul and character of this nation has changed. It no longer feels like home.

Adrian, MK, England

I'm one of the 188,000 who left the UK in 2004-5. Boy am I glad I did, I have moved to costal area of New South Wales Australia. After living most of my life in North London I took the view it was no place to raise a family, culturally as an white English person I felt that the UK had completely lost its way, and unlimited integration was destroying traditional society. I did not want my children to be raised amongst the dregs of humanity but in a place that respected Anglo saxon values and customs and didn't bend over backwards to accomodate foreigners with no desire to integrate. I feel more in tune with my neighbours 12000 miles away from England than I did in London. I can do without the drug culture, bad weather and ridiculously PC environment of Britain.

Paul Hasforth , Pacific Palms, Australia

Why don't you copy the comments here and paste them under yesterday's article about the 1 million brits now living in Spain?
That will make for interesting reading.
However there are a couple of relevant differences:
- Most inmigrants to the UK go there to work, while the majority of brits in Spain are retirees; imagine the outcry on the ''NHS sinking'' if 1 million romanian retirees went to live in the UK
- Having lived in the UK myself for a while, I never met a ''foreigner'' proud of not speaking english and yet still complaining about the ''locals'' being unable to understand them in their mother tongue; the contrary happens in Spain a lot.

The old story about double standards...

jorge, zaragoza, spain

"and 179,000 from the Commonwealth"

If you mean India and Pakistan, say so.

Pete, Cov,

My first time reading these comments. I wonder if you can tell a true 'Brit' by the smug sarcasm in debating these things. We imposed our 'culture' and gene pool on plenty of other countries, so can't complain when we get some back. Maybe we'll get some decent footballers, cricketers and politicians as a result. Is that sarcastic enough?

John, Oxford, UK

What's the big deal? I'm a scot and fell in love with and married a south african. We now have a gorgeous little boy. My friend has just moved to Holland to settle down with her Dutch partner. We can't criticise people for settling here and having children unless we stop travelling the world ourselves and settling abroad. Isn't there a news item today about record numbers of Brits settling abroad? Lets stop being 2- faced and xenophobic and enjoy the diversity of our world and fellow human beings.

A Bruce, Edinburgh, Scotland

I'm not worried about the number of immigrants, as long as they work. Their standards of behaviour, for example, are often higher than many native Brits. However, the growth in our population scares me, as our island is already overcrowded.

Carol, Derby,

In the last decade, perhaps a little longer, we have seen the culture, creeds, customs and traditions of this once great nation swept aside by an influx, one cannot call it any less, of peoples who have no connection to this country, who, in some cases, dislike or even hate our culture and traditions and appear to work from inside, much like fifth columnists, undermining any notion of nationality by demanding that their cultures, creeds and customs are given as much weight and influence as those of the indigenous population. Instead of adopting and adapting to our way of life they have, all, in one way or another insisted on changing the face of this nation and not always for the better. The indigenous population, the English, the Scottish, the Welsh and Northern Irish because there is no such nationality as British, are leaving because they are sick and tired of political correctness driven by a liberal elite left-wing agenda that allows unfettered immigration.

Ken, Suffolk, England

Immigration is needed to provide the next generation of workers for the UK economy. Due to lifestyle choices, low fertility rates amongst the 'British' cannot provide the expected polulation growth.

Gerard Mckay, Kassel, Germany

Whats wrong with coming across as a National Front member?
It would only need 3 or 4 MP's representing the BNP to frighten the big parties into listening to and acting on the real fears of the native British.
In a few more generations, the English will be a minority in their own country.

KenR, Bedford, UK

The whole thing is Totally out of control. The pc brigade, currently in government, has an inherent disdain for nations and national identities. Hence this phenomenon - for want of a better phrase. Goodness knows what the generation who fought (and died ) in WWII to protect a country that they recognised was unique and precious think/would have thought?

Gerry Absalom, London,

Nationality and nationhood have been deliberately cast onto the scrap-heap as Labour's wide-open door migration 'policy' of the last ten years has taken a firm hold. One could question whether this is part of their plan to ensure they remain in government: socially-engineer the electorate by actively encouraging inward migration which then generates outward migration of the non-Labour voters ?

Rick, London, England

It isn't the immigrants destroying English society it's the politically correct mob. Re Jamie Wallace's comment about supporting the 85's in their old age, why don't people organise their finances for their old age? If I can bring up three kids and pay a mortgage alone, and then put money into a pension and savings for my retirement one my kids went to work, why cannot most othger people? Obviously there has to be exceptions but not the rule.
There are too many immigrants coming into this country, if everyone is suppose to work until they are 67 or 68 how are they to get or keep jobs when there are younger immigrants for the jobs, something doesn't compute but then I am not as clever as you lot.

Christine in Hayes, Hayes, Middlesex, England

The most worrying statistic is the feritility rate among Pakistani/Bengali women in the UK, which stands at around 4.5 compared to the overall national average of under 2. This trend can only be reversed if more people from ethnic minorities, especially the Muslim community, are cajoled/forced to take up employment rather than stay at home and procreate.

Chris, Brighton,

There 'll always be sad Little Englanders trying to maintain a fantasy world behind their hedges ( They usually make the most miserable and petty neighbours!). Humanity continues to migrate, mingle and trade... Learn some proper history people and get real! Why do you even bother to dress your foul racism in weak platitudes, you re no different to the NF which no longer exists by the way . Is it because you know that what you re trying to say is no longer acceptable?

Jay, Bristol,

Britain will always be reconisable. The more immigrants the more easier it will be to reconise. It will loose its identity if it stays like it was 100 years ago.

Smith, Burnley, Uk

These figures show that controlled immigration is essential. We have 19% of the population as pensioners.

We have to either raise taxes or increase the number of people who pay tax to be able to pay for people who have retired.

No government will raise taxes to the level required to fund the pensioners retirement so it is left to migrant workers to come and pay tax as they earn money.

Policy should be concentrating on integration into British society, it's values, morals and language for all migrants rather then simply closing the door to migrants and leaving the country to bankruptcy.

It needs to be done, done quickly and those who don't like it can take the revolving door the other way.

Si, Reading,

Has anyone seen the weather forecast? The immigrants are welcome to Britain, i'm off to Malta with my Swedish wife. Long live the EU!

Andrew, London, Britain

It's heartbreaking to see what these despicable polititians are doing to OUR country. Our only hope is to elect UKIP and at least get us out of this EU fiasco and regain control of our borders. This regime has never been given consent to flood our country with immigrants or to involve us in Europe.
If UKIP fail us, as the Labour party and the Conserative party have then we will have no choice but to elect the BNP .

Clive Burghard, LANCING, ENGLAND

Quite right R Parry , Ms H & Andrew Milner (who, from the address given would not appear to be in the strongest position to criticise immigration) - all these immigrants will almost certainly destroy the traditional English society, no respect for tea parties, hardly any grasp of the basic rules of cricket and no doubt totally oblivious to the history of our glorious empire. Anyone who can't prove they have true British blood stretching back at least 5 generations should be immediately deported, and leave us true Brits alone to support these 1.2m over 85's in their old age.

Jamie Wallace, Hamburg,

In a hundred years or so Britain will be hardly recognisable. Then we'll realise our mistakes for allowing so many immigrants into this country, but by then it will be too late.

R Parry, London, London

Oh good, we don't need any more very expensive IVF then.

Judy , Liverpool, england

Predictably, people have started the comments with talking about the number of people coming into Britain. The usual media nonsense about 'immigrants swamping Britain' is trotted out yet again, with no consideration of the flip side. Should politicians now be bringing 'home' the 196,000 British people who left to become immigrants in other countries?

I'm sure Spain would be very grateful if we'd remove our British immigrants from their country, it would greatly reduce the number of British ex-pats who drive up their property prices, contribute nothing to their economy and refuse to speak the language. If this number of Brits are to be allowed to retire to 'a better life' in a different country, why should the reception be any different to foreign nationals who seek the same in this country? We do not have colonies any more, the world operates on a global scale and until the 'Great British' public starts treating people as people not nationalities we will be left behind

Sophie, Birmingham,

Who came up with the population figures? Our population is more like 64 million.

Judy , Liverpool, england

We are no longer a nation.

Ms H, London, UK

Don't want to come across as a National Front founder member, but isn't gross population turnover the significant data here? Namely, immigrants plus emigrants. There are a range of variables to complicate the picture; Some of those that emigrate return, some émigrés give up on UK and return “home” or move on to a third country, immigrant birth rate tends to be higher... But bottom line has to be that unless there's a radical change in UK immigration policy, in a few decades there will be more immigrants than indigenous population. I understand the need to address the pressures brought about by an aging population, Japan faces similar problems. But authority here is far more circumspect, and has not and will not allow uncontrolled immigration. Britain’s immigration policy (for want of a better term); volume as a function of time, is borderline insanity. Doesn’t this remind you of the last time Labour was in power? Common sense playing second fiddle to far left Socialist dogma.

Andrew Milner, Yokohama, Kanagawa

whats wrong with immigration? previded that they work anyone should be allowed to come to this country! i think the media influences us too much in xenophobia - its time for a change!

Leigh, Newport,