Difficult though it is to admit, I am ashamed right now to be British.

Innocent Ukrainian citizens are fleeing their country to escape merciless shelling and bombing by Russian troops.

They are refugees on the unarmed road of flight and all the British government is doing is to perpetuate the brutal and misconceived policy of creating a hostile environment created by a previous Home Secretary.

We should be welcoming the Ukrainian refugees with open arms but instead the Home Office is making their lives impossibly difficult by applying unnecessary bureaucratic procedures and issuing a risibly small number of visas after difficult journeys to inconvenient locations (in contrast to our European friends, who are offering an unconditional and empathetic welcome to those unfortunate people).

There but for fortune go you or I.

Yes, shame is what we should all feel and we should make our feelings known to the government.

Ian Frame

Dorchester

[Note to Editor: As a member of the Dylan generation (I am 76) I should point out that the reference to the “unarmed road of flight” is a quotation from Bob Dylan’s song Chimes of Freedom; and that the phrase “There but for fortune go you or I” is a quotation from a song (so entitled) by Joan Baez and Phil Ochs].