Basic courtesy

Brian A. Smalley from Chesterfield, England rightly complains that we Maltese do not smile much and eschew "please" and "thank you". Immigration officers seem to be his main target. A strange choice, if I may say so. On my exits and returns to Malta they are the ones who do say please and thank you to me.

In the last 10-12 years I must have visited the UK at least 70 times, arriving at different airports but mainly Heathrow. Not once have the rather surly immigration officers smiled or said please or thank you to me despite my cheerful greeting even after a lengthy wait in a very long queue.

I should think that our immigration officers do what Mr Smalley complains about because of cultural differences contrasted to that of their British counterparts. I would hate to think that British immigration officers view each visitor to the United Kingdom as an illegal immigrant and, therefore, a sponger of the state which may account for their rather unwelcoming and off-putting disposition.

Mr Smalley appears to reside in Chesterfield, a place known for its crooked and leaning church steeple. I hope it will remain erect for as long a time it takes British immigration officers to smile now and again.