They furrin bank accounts

Our xenophobes are more sophisticated these days. "'Eave 'arf a brick at 'im" has been replaced by "stop his money". Helen Byrne on Liberal Democrat Voice draws attention to an increasing threat to innocent bank account holders who have the misfortune to be different from the conservative norm.

If persons born outside the UK become automatically suspect, then some notable parliamentarians would be subject to Home Office attention. Baron Hain (born in Kenya, brought up in South Africa) and (Baroness) Floella Benjamin (born in Trinidad) come to mind. This Conservative government might also be happy to see the following MPs under financial pressure:

• Margaret Hodge (Labour) — born Cairo, Egypt
• Rushanara Ali (Labour) — Bishwanath, Bangladesh
• Wera Hobhouse (Liberal Democrat) – Hannover, Germany
• Khalid Mahmood (Labour) — Azad Kashmir, Pakistan
• Yasmin Qureshi (Labour) — Gujrat, Pakistan
• Virendra Sharma (Labour) — India
• Deidre Brock (SNP) — Perth, Australia
• Catherine West (Labour) — Sydney, Australia
• Keith Vaz (Labour) — Aden Colony, present day Yemen
• Valarie Vaz (Labour) — Aden Colony, present day Yemen
• Jim Dowd (Labour) — Bad Eilsen, Germany
• Nia Griffith (Labour) — Dublin, Republic of Ireland
• Natascha Engel (Labour) — Berlin, Germany

- but they should also be aware of:

• Boris Johnson (Conservative) — born New York, United States of America
• Tobias Ellwood (Conservative) — New York, United States of America
• Greg Hands (Conservative) — New York, United States of America
• Mark Field (Conservative) — Hannover, Germany
• Rehman Chishti (Conservative) — Muzaffarabad, Pakistan
• Edward Garnier (Conservative) — Wuppertal, Germany
• Paul Beresford (Conservative) — Levin, New Zealand
• Shailesh Vara (Conservative) — Uganda
• Rory Stewart (Conservative) — Hong Kong
• Flick Drummond (Conservative) — Aden, South Yemen
• Alok Sharma (Conservative) — Agra, India
• Crispin Blunt (Conservative) — Germany
• Daniel Kawczynski (Conservative) — Warsaw, Poland
• Nadhim Zahawi (Conservative) — Baghdad, Iraq
• Marcus Fysh (Conservative) — Australia

and Bob Seely, MP for Isle of Wight, will not disclose even to the Parliament web site where he was born.