WHEN it comes to immigration, we begin to think that government policy has got about as insane as it possibly could - when we get a surprise. It gets even more insane still! The latest is that asylum-seekers are being given free fertility treatment on the NHS - while thousands of childless British couples are being refused help.

An investigation carried out by The Sunday Telegraph last month revealed that couples from Albania, the former Yugoslavia and Lithuania are being referred in growing numbers for this specialist treatment, including expensive in vitro fertilisation (IVF) in hospitals throughout Britain.

Ministers have ordered health authorities to treat asylum-seekers just the same as British citizens. Says the Sunday Telegraph report: "They are therefore eligible for treatment which is so strictly rationed that it is referred to as a "post-code lottery" - a reference to the crazy practice of granting medical treatment to people according to area quotas rather than need. It now looks as if these asylum-seekers - who haven't in the past contributed a penny to the Health Service - are qualifying for a share in the quotas.

This is an absolute outrage.