Sir, Your article “What questions remain unanswered in Shabana Mahmood’s asylum reform?” (Nov 18) suggests that the home secretary risks breaching the European Convention on Human Rights. That is because the convention states that children should not be sent to countries to which they had few or no ties or where their schooling, healthcare and social development would be disrupted. Well, our children followed us on expatriate assignments where the schooling, healthcare and social norms were very different, and as with thousands of other expat children they rapidly acclimatised and flourished. Children adjust readily as long as the family remains united — which is surely the focus of Ms Mahmood’s welcome reforms.
Chris Rhodes
Lock, W Sussex
Sir, The asylum proposals are tough but fair (reports and letters, Nov 18 & 19). They retain the UK’s absolute commitment to giving sanctuary to those fleeing persecution for as long as it is necessary. There are faster routes to permanent settlement for those who contribute to society and slower ones for those who do not. There is a promise of more safe routes for genuine refugees, which has long been the call of refugee agencies. A fair asylum system must also be uncompromising in tackling those who are not genuine refugees.
The system is under constant attack from those who care not one jot for the rights of genuine refugees and those who would exploit every loophole to stay unlawfully. The government must do everything to combat that, including deporting failed asylum seekers and their families swiftly to a safe country. There is nothing more undermining of public confidence than the sense that the government has lost control of its borders. It is surely time that, whatever our political views, we get behind a home secretary who is trying to do something about it.
Sir David Normington
Permanent secretary, Home Office, 2006-10; Petersfield, Hants
Sir, Efficiency in our asylum system must never come at the expense of humanity and compassion. The proposed changes will not deter those who have already faced the ultimate deterrent: risking their lives to reach safety. If we truly want to reduce dangerous journeys to the UK we must recognise the humanitarian need that drives them and respond with workable safe ways for people to claim asylum without having to put their lives at risk. As the country that pioneered Kindertransport, welcomed Vietnamese refugees in the 1970s and launched Homes for Ukraine, we have a proud history of helping people in times of crisis. To continue that legacy, we need official routes so people can find safety.
Mubeen Bhutta
Director of policy, British Red Cross
Sir, Melanie Phillips demonises rather more refugees than deserve demonising (“It’s not racist to put Britons before refugees”, Nov 18). The more this becomes a social norm, the harder it will be for refugees to integrate, thus exacerbating the pressure on services. The problem for our overburdened Home Office is to address all this sensitively and with good judgment. Extending the uncertainty to 20 years will increase the Home Office’s burden and create an unnecessarily cruel limbo for migrants who may well have created fully integrated lives in such a time.
Jerry Stuart
London SE1
Spain’s alteration
Sir, I take issue with your leading article “Spanish Renaissance” (Nov 17) on a number of counts. The transition from dictatorship to democracy was not “near bloodless”, as 665 people died at the hands of terrorists between 1975 and 1982, far more than during the Greek and Portuguese transitions. Neither was Franco’s Spain “politically isolated”, having joined the General Assembly of the United Nations in 1955, having become a de facto member of Nato after the Bases Agreement of 1953 with the US, and having signed a Preferential Commercial Agreement with the EEC in 1970.
Nor was Spain a “backwater” reliant upon an “agrarian base”, as agriculture contributed only 18.5 per cent of GDP by 1965. Tourist volume, for example, surpassed France in 1960 and Italy in 1964. By 1972, 31 million tourists were flocking to Spain, making it a reference point for the development of tourism in many other parts of the world. In sum, Franco’s Spain was neither as parochial nor as peripheral as you maintain.
Nigel Townson
Author of The Penguin History of Modern Spain, 1898 to the Present
Chinese spying
Sir, Dan Jarvis, the security minister, has warned about Chinese spying via recruitment agencies (“MI5 alert over Chinese spies”, Nov 19). Why, then, is the government still deliberating over the planning application for an enormous Chinese embassy at Royal Mint Court? A resounding No is the only acceptable decision.
Paul Garrod
Southsea, Hants
Starmer’s prospects
Sir, Daniel Finkelstein (comment, Nov 19) may be right that Sir Keir Starmer’s premiership is on the rocks; however, it’s hard to see anyone in the Commons with anything to offer to replace him. Nigel Farage may offer hope, but it’s the same false and hollow hope that Marine Le Pen offers French voters. Both are trying to appeal to a public drowning in choppy waters and desperately looking for something, anything, to cling on to. Starmer may be a blotting-paper prime minister, bland, boring and characterless while smudging and fudging his way through his premiership; but until someone steps up with clarity, self-belief and a pen that doesn’t leak, we may be stuck with him for many more years.
Charles Helliwell
London SW18
Sir, You state that significant numbers of Labour MPs are concerned that Sir Keir Starmer is now a liability (“Nearly half all Labour voters want Starmer out by next election”, news, Nov 18) and that plotting against him in the cabinet has been the subject of leaks. By coincidence I happen to be reading The Prime Minister by Anthony Trollope, in which the titular character faces a very similar situation and does eventually have to resign. Written 150 years ago, this novel seems to mirror exactly the difficulties faced today by the man in “the top job”. Of course, the outcome may not be the same, but it may be of some comfort to Starmer that the fictional PM was held to be too morally scrupulous to be effective.
Mary Welham
Mortimer, Berks
Leaving Britain
Sir, In your article “Net migration lower than thought as hundreds of thousands emigrate” (Nov 19), you report that immigration experts are seemingly perplexed as to why so many Britons have left this country in recent years. I wonder if Britain’s stagnant economic growth, rising unemployment, increasing taxes, declining public services, unaffordable housing, and rising living costs might offer some explanation.
Neil Thomason
Guildford
Mental health care
Sir, The dangers of children using AI for mental health therapy support could lead to the next public health emergency if the government does not take urgent action (“Children using AI for mental health advice risk harmful self-diagnosis”, Nov 17). For too long children who require mental health support have been unable to access the services they need, and before they reach crisis point. One in five young people is living with a mental health condition, and with NHS waiting lists only rising it is no surprise that children are turning to tools such as ChatGPT for support.
AI offers many benefits but it cannot replace the vital human element in mental health care; it should be integrated thoughtfully to support human therapist-led care. The government must treat this as a wake-up call and use the budget to invest in increasing the mental health workforce. This is essential to meet rising demand and ensure children who are struggling can access timely, in-person support before it is too late.
Dr Roman Raczka
President, British Psychological Society
Need to protect our spinout companies
Sir, Jeremy Hunt is right to warn that the government must not “squeeze” university spinouts “so hard that we end up killing the golden goose” (“University spin-out firms are a golden goose, warns Hunt”, news, Nov 17). A boom in spinouts, companies formed from our world-leading academic research, requires a cross-government approach, but while one part of the government champions commercialisation, another is proposing a tax that will damage the pipeline of talent that makes them possible.
Many of the postgraduate researchers developing cancer treatments, training AI models and advancing manufacturing technologies in our university labs are international students. That research drives spinouts, which in turn generate tax revenue, create jobs and deliver breakthroughs that save lives. According to the think tank Public First, the proposed 6 per cent levy on international student fees will deter 16,120 students in Year 1 alone. If Britain wants to maintain its global standing for research and build on a record year for spinout investment, we need more of this talent, not a tax that drives it away.
Dr Anne Lane
Chief executive, UCL Business
Return of wildcat
Sir, You report (Nov 18) that the southwest of England could be the wildcat’s new home and that as few as 115 of them remain in the Scottish Highlands. The main reason for the demise of the Scottish wildcat (Felis silvestris) is that tomcats find it too easy to mate with domestic females (Felis catus). Hence, the wildcat gene pool is increasingly flooded with domestic genes; thus, F. silvestris becomes a victim of introgressive hybridism. How should the same fate be avoided in mid-Devon?
Dr David AS Smith
Clyro, Powys
Dentistry scrutiny
Sir, Further to your report “Regulator should sink its teeth into private dentists, says Reeves” (Nov 19), the reason dentists will take on children as NHS patients while only treating their parents privately is almost certainly because historically they have not had a contract to provide adult care. To do so would mean not only that they would not get paid for it, but also it would be a breach of NHS regulations.
Dr Jerry Asquith
Ret’d dental surgeon, Moor Park, Herts
Reading package
Sir, I agree with June Keeble (letter, Nov 19) that cereal packets can help with reading. I have encouraged many a young reluctant reader in school to read a certain toy catalogue; they have then gone on to enjoy reading, realising that it is not some boring activity but the skill of comprehending printed matter, which develops their inquiring minds.
Susan Harrison-Sturt
Areley Kings, Worcs
Sir, All packaging in Canada is bilingual, so growing up reading cereal boxes helped me to improve my French and increase my lifespan (Matthew Parris, Notebook, Nov 19).
Wendy Carey
Reigate, Surrey
Write to letters@thetimes.co.uk
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