Ronald Reagan was right about most things. Including immigration.

My political hero's last speech as President:

"This I believe is one of the most important sources of America’s greatness. We lead the world because unique among nations, we draw our people, our strength, from every country and every corner of the world … Thanks to each wave of new arrivals to this land of opportunity, we’re a nation forever young, forever bursting with energy and new ideas, and always on the cutting edge; always leading the world to the next frontier …"

When did conservatives stop thinking immigration - people moving to get a better life for them and their families - was a good thing? When did we start proclaiming, in that 'no nothing' way, that the nation is full? When did we start mistrusting people because of their face, their dress or their hat? How did we start wanting to deny people to right to religion, to a new home and to a better life?

It's not just America - for all of Reagan's exceptionalism - that is built on immigration. You don't have to look far in Britain to see the contribution from people who weren't born here but contributed to our success - from Brunel, the son of a French immigrant through Joseph Conrad, a Polish political refugee to sporting heroes like Mo Farah. Where then did we get this odd belief that people prepared to risk everything - money, health and life - to get to a better place are somehow going to tear down that new place, the land of their hopes?

Yes immigration needs control but we, if we are to be conservatives, need to believe that the strength of a good community is to welcome the stranger, to open our doors to them and to grant them our hospitality. This is what we mean by decency, civilisation and responsibility.

I read recently Thomas Freidman's report (in his book Thank You for Being Late) on the reasons why so many Africans are risking life and limb to cross the Mediterranean - they're not coming here to destroy us, they're coming here because Europe is their last, only, hope. This is the same reason millions crammed onto boats from Sweden, Italy, Spain and Germany to America - drought, prejudice, opportunity, hope.

What America does that we in Britain do poorly, is celebrate their culture and the symbols of their society. Everywhere you go there are flags flying, some of them enormous, and everywhere - even the most Mexican of rural towns - looks and feels like America. In Britain we embraced a form of multiculturalism that included the new arrivals by pushing aside the culture of home, especially if that home was ordinary, working class England.

Living where I live, I understand some of the fears and concerns - about jobs, about the loss of old familiar things and a sadness about change. But the response to this shouldn't be to push people away but rather to put out the flags, to celebrate Britain in the way most Americans, regardless of heritage, ethnicity or faith, celebrate the USA.

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