Priti Patel wants to fix the ‘broken’ asylum system. She should start by listening to community groups

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Home secretary Priti Patel ordered officials to look into the possibility of building an asylum processing centre on Ascension Island (EPA)

The home secretary is inviting creative solutions to the “problem” of asylum seekers. Looking at past successes might help.

In 1938, we admitted 10,000 Jewish children in the Kindertransport operation. They were taken in by families, schools and children’s homes up and down the country.  

In 1972, we admitted 27,000 Ugandan Asians, who went first into designated camps in the UK (though the Falklands had been discussed) and in months were settled with families and friends in the community.

In 2015, David Cameron agreed to take 20,000 Syrians from Middle Eastern refugee camps, through the Community Sponsorship campaign. Most are now settled, five years on.

In 2018, the NGO Safe Passage, along with Lord Dubs, secured agreement from local authorities for over 1,000 foster places for unaccompanied migrant minors.  

The answer is plain. Ask civil society how to do it. Community groups such as Refugees Welcome, Citizens UK, churches, etc, would be happy to play their part in migrant resettlement. The leaders of Hammersmith and Fulham, and Ealing councils have shown willing, along with a dozen other councils. Priti Patel could trust the people. Just ask us.

Barbara Kentish

London N4  

Brexit and the economy

The Brexit talks are back in the headlines as the crunch point is being reached on a potential trade deal between the UK and the EU.  

Meanwhile, rumbling on in the background, and maybe not getting the attention deserved due to Covid-19, is the major impact Brexit is having on the economy.  

According to professional services company EY, financial services firms operating in the UK have shifted about 7,500 employees and more than £1.2 trillion of assets to the European Union ahead of the ending of the transition period this year – with more likely to follow in coming weeks.

About 400 relocations were announced in the past month alone. Since Britain voted to leave the bloc in 2016, the finance industry has added 2,850 positions in the EU, with Dublin, Luxembourg and Frankfurt seeing the biggest gains.  

From next year, firms in Europe’s financial capital will lose their passporting rights, which enables them to offer services across the EU. They will have to rely on the bloc granting the UK so-called equivalence for them to do business with customers in the region. With the EU far from certain to grant that access, firms are beefing up their continental presence.  

It is inevitable that further moves will follow soon as we stumble towards the Brexit precipice at the end of this year.

Alex Orr

Edinburgh

The prime minister’s for U-turning

Forty years ago, Margaret Thatcher proudly stated she was “not for turning”. However, couldn’t our prime minister U-turn on his proclamation that “we will send coronavirus packing within 12 weeks” to, er, 12 months?

Mike Bor

London W2

Pence may not be so bad

Holly Baxter may well be correct in predicting that America’s right-wing lurch could be even more pronounced under a Mike Pence presidency than under Trump (Trump said Biden was a medically fragile liability whose VP might seize control. Now he has Covid-19, Voices).

The vice-president is, after all, more ideologically rooted in the evangelical Christian wing of the Republican Party than Trump ever was.

Ironically, like Biden, Pence comes from a blue-collar Irish American family that traditionally voted Democrat, and Pence himself counts John F Kennedy as his inspiration for first entering politics.

Yet at some point in the early 1980s, seemingly out of admiration for Ronald Reagan, Pence swapped Democrats for Republicans and converted from Catholic to born-again Christian. And converts, in my view, tend to be more fanatic in their beliefs.

His term as governor of Indiana revealed his instincts as a tough law-and-order Republican, ferociously anti-abortion and largely hostile to minority rights.  

Yet unlike Trump, Pence is also a Washington insider having served in Congress. A more congenial personality than Trump may help him build cross-party support with Democrats as should a less dogmatic approach on such issues as climate change and immigration.

In other areas, however, notably foreign affairs, Pence may prove far more belligerent, in the tradition of neo-con Republicans like Cheney, Rumsfeld and more recently John Bolton, who Trump fired. Surprises like Trump’s overtures to North Korea would be unlikely to be repeated and the prospect of a more hostile approach to both Putin’s Russia and trade with China, while restoring fractured relations with Nato allies, may actually find accord with many Democrats. In this respect, if Pence ever gets his hands on the White House, he may be a more formidable proponent of “Pax Americana” than the isolationist Trump ever was.

Paul Dolan

Cheshire

US presidential debate

Thank you, Mary Dejevsky (Stop complaining about the presidential debate – Trump and Biden showed that US democracy is alive and kicking). I have spoken to a number of people who saw the debate (I didn’t) and were appalled.  

It was interesting how many revised their opinion when I put forward Dejevsky’s take on the proceedings.

Joanna Pallister

Durham City