The heavy-handed tactics of customs officers at the cross-channel ports, seizing alcohol and tobacco and confiscating vehicles, are sickening.

The officials, wielding enough power to make many people's lives a misery, are an example of a new kind of nastiness prevalent in Britain today.

While some rogues may be being caught, perfectly innocent travellers are being treated as though they have no rights at all.

Even more sickening is the way the ruthless Chancellor, Gordon Brown, is cheering on the whole unsavoury and probably illegal business from Downing Street.

So determined was he to discourage us from doing what we have an absolute right to do under European law, he found the resources to hire an extra 1,000 Customs officials to make cross-channel shopping a difficult, even frightening experience for us.

Now the European Commission's single market commissioner Frits Bolkestein is threatening to take the Government to court over its dastardly treatment of our right to shop across borders.

What Mr Bolkestein said made heartening reading. He was clear and firm.

He insisted that cross-border shopping within the internal market is a fundamental right under European Union law.

It should not be regarded as a form of tax evasion even if it gives rise to revenue losses for the UK exchequer. He was equally clear the British Government had failed to establish that its draconian controls conformed to EU law.

The fact that Gordon Brown's excessive taxes on alcohol and tobacco make them far higher than French and Belgian rates has guaranteed high levels of smuggling. Brown cannot be surprised and has only himself to blame.

It is too much to hope he will actually have to appear in court personally to apologise for the error of his ways!

That may be leaping into the realms of fantasy. But let me suggest a 'what if' to you that is not at all fantastical.

What if Gordon Brown had had the will and the guts to deploy an extra thousand officials, not to harass legal shoppers returning home, but to help get rid of the 97,500 failed asylum seekers who remain illegally in Britain and who are hiding in the community.

What if he and Tony Blair and David Blunkett had got together and said: "Right. Let's spend whatever it takes to solve this problem and get rid of these illegals once and for all."

We know that in spite of all the horrific statistics and all the publicity, life for illegals here in the asylum capital of the world is pretty good. And now the Home Office has confirmed if they can hide out with families or friends for seven years without being detected, they can stay on legally. What a farce.

This Government may be good at whacking innocent shoppers without recompense but when it comes to taking tough decisions that might offend the sensibilities of the politically correct, its policies are not even a sham. They are non-existent.