IT is said that many of the terrorists who committed the atrocities in America had been in England for a while before the attacks.

I don't know how they get in.

In the 70s, I had a friend, an Arab from Tunisia, who was on teaching practice at Westleigh High for a year.

When he came back, three months after his return home, he was grilled like a criminal by immigration staff at Heathrow.

And so was I.

On arrival in this country, he was taken into a room, asked where he was going and interrogated with a light shining in his eyes.

Fortunately, I was at home when the immigration department rang me to make sure his story collaborated with what I told them.

Only then did they let him go.

Are procedures not so strict these days? If they were, perhaps there wouldn't be as much trouble in the world.

I was disgusted at the time, but now I see the sense in it.

Maybe all visitors from countries which harbour terrorists should be given the same treatment.