We can recapture the spirit of Great Britain

NEXT year marks the anniversary of the 80th Allies' titanic victory over tyranny in the Second World War.

- Leo McKinstry

But that remarkable triumph might never have happened without the miracle of Dunkirk in the early summer of 1940, when a vast, improvised armada lifted much of the besieged British Army from north-west France.

More than eight decades after Dunkirk, the Channel coast is now the setting for a very different challenge to Britain's integrity as an ever greater number of illegal migrants seek to reach our shores.

Altogether more than 35,000 have made the crossing this year, an increase of 20% on 2023.

Yet what is missing from the response of British officialdom is the kind of defiant patriotic spirit that made Dunkirk possible.

Impotence is the hallmark of our ruling elite. Our politicians prefer empty words to tough actions.

In 1940, Churchill was determined to defend "our island home," as he put it, but today there is no such mood of resolve about border controls.

Indeed, the authorities effectively collude with the criminal gangs of people smugglers by oper ating a quasi-ferry service.