It is no longer true, if it ever were, that the Australian migrant to Britain is a West London barworker whose only cultural contribution is a strange habit of posing statements as questions. In fact, in recent years, thousands of educated Australians have come to the UK.

Migration has been the start of a career, not a gap year. And the cultural contribution of the expatriates - Clive James, Germaine Greer, Barry Humphries, Nick Cave, Peter Porter - means that it is silly and patronising to say the Australians had to come here to sample the culture they lacked at home. And that is without even mentioning Rolf Harris. Or the Minogue sisters, for that matter.

So it is with some alarm that we should greet the news that the Australians are heading home: 2,700 a month, up from 1,750 a month in 2005. This is largely a vote of no confidence in the old country. As the recession bites, the lure of home, with unemployment at a 33-year low and the dollar at an 11-year high against sterling, is very tempting.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/leading_article/article5226320.ece