THE news on Tuesday showed MPs debating the open-door immigration policies adopted at our ports over the past few years. What really caught my eye was that there were barely 50 MPs present in the chamber. Where were the other 600?

Having just had a week’s holiday, were they having a couple of days extra? Just watch them all crowding in on a Wednesday for PMQs, hoping the cameras will show their devotion to duty.

Parliament is in session for a maximum seven months a year, and a great many of MPs turn up late on a Monday, and leave for home on Thursday afternoon. They all have personal staff doing their research and paperwork.

When they bleat about being overworked or underpaid, these facts should be repeatedly relayed to them. What hypocrisy they show when claiming “We are all in this together”.

Geoff Robb, Hunters Close, Dunnington, York.