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I’m afraid I don’t have much sympathy for ultranationalists whining about Britain being invaded by foreigners, given that many of the 83 known military interventions our nation has staged in 47 countries since 1945 were actual overt invasions.

Over the past twenty years alone, this includes military intervention in Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, Nigeria, Mali, Libya and Syria — ironically, the very countries cited by the ultranationalists as the wellspring of the invading army.

Since 1945, it includes overt interventions in the Bahamas, Belize, Bermuda, Borneo, Brunei, Cameroon, Cyprus, Egypt, Eritrea, Gambia, Guyana, Hong Kong, Iceland, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kenya, Korea, Kuwait, Malawi, Malaya, the Maldives, Mauritius, Oman, Palestine, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Tanzania, Uganda, Ukraine, Vietnam, Yemen and Yugoslavia.

Declassified documents reveals additional involvement in numerous covert operations in Algeria, Afghanistan, Albania, Angola, Belize, Estonia, France, Gambia, Indonesia, Iran, Libya, Kenya, Mali, Nigeria, Pakistan, Russia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tajikistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan and Yemen. This includes twenty special forces deployments in the past decade.

The fabled rubber dinghy flotilla of the invading landing forces coming ashore in sight of our beloved White Cliffs pales against our deployment of aircraft carriers, assault ships, destroyers and frigates in active duty, not to mention our operational Chinooks, Hercules, Lightnings, Merlins, Puma, Reapers, Sentinels, Sentries, Tornados and Typhoons.

Even Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, aka Tommy Robinson, has had to admit in his eternal state of agitated confusion that actually, yes, our nation has in fact invaded all of the countries from which large numbers of refugees now flee. Of course, he still sees it as his life’s mission to prevent the Islamisation of Europe, but eventually he may be forced to engage with those facts too.

The facts being that across Europe, Muslims only make up around five percent of the population. In the latest UK census, the biggest threat to Christianity was not another faith, but the rise of no religion at all. Media representations may well have amplified the perception of Muslim influence on British society — indeed, numerous academic papers have demonstrated that the press has actively shaped attitudes towards Muslims — but reality paints a completely different picture altogether.

There is no invasion of Great Britain, or Europe. As expected, there tend to be increased movements of refugee populations directly correlated to increased conflict and environmental degradation. The countries hosting the most refugees are Turkey, Columbia, Pakistan, Uganda and Germany. In Britain, refugees make up 0.5% of the population. As for the fabled other which lives amongst us: that number is about four million, in contrast to sixty-four million non-others. Those, as they say, are the facts.