It’s always important not to confuse social media with real life; nonetheless it has had a massive impact.

Sometimes platforms like Twitter become merely a forum for the witless rather than the wise, yet sometimes too the respondents prove capable of great empathy.

Witness the daily outpouring of affection for comedian Janey Godley as she battles through her cancer treatment.

Of course countless thousands more are suffering precisely the same ordeal anonymously, but when a kenspeckle figure like Janey goes public, it helps us focus on their ordeal too.

However, the Tweet this week which moved me to anger rather than tears came from a woman who hails from mainland Europe but has been resident in Scotland for 17 years.

She deeply resented, she said, having constantly to prove to the authorities that she had a right to remain here, and was even more incensed at her daughter’s right to schooling being questioned.

This is a direct result of the intolerance of a Home Office which is so obsessed with migrant numbers that it has made daily life uncertain not just for the tired, huddled masses risking drowning in the English Channel as they seek sanctuary or better opportunities for their families, but has provided a hostile environment for those already settled here.

The scandal of the Windrush deportees goes on, with people who have been here since childhood – at the express invitation of the government – deported to lands of which they know little. Others have lost jobs, pensions and homes having been unable to locate the precise piece of bureaucratic paperwork demanded.

Sometimes that is a passport they have never bothered to own, having made their home and their life here, with no intention of exploring the wider world.

The belated introduction of a compensation scheme has been so botched that many have died before being able to claim, while for others the sums involved don’t even begin to look at the amounts lost in wages and pensions.

Here in Scotland, our migrant population has enriched our lives in so many ways. Our eating habits have changed to embrace so many wonderful cultures; Asian, Italian, and Chinese cuisine is now a regular part of most Scots diets and dining experiences.

Meanwhile there is little doubt that our hospitality industry, pre-Brexit, would have found it tough going without a huge tranche of young Poles and other Europeans.

Migrant seasonal workers propped up the fruit picking industry, and our hospitals and care homes benefitted from the skills of people from all over the world.

We have trashed so much of that these last few years, as people decided that the welcome mat was no longer available. More fool us. Global Britain? Aye, right!