Small boat arrivals are not a threat

As your leader showed, the number of people arriving on small boats is minuscule in the overall immigration context (“‘Small boats week’ chaos reveals a bankrupt strategy”). The vast majority of annual UK immigrants come here for work or study or are admitted on humanitarian schemes, such as those for Afghan, Ukrainian or Hong Kong citizens, set up and sponsored by the government itself. According to the Home Office’s own figures, small boat arrivals accounted for just 40,000 asylum claims in 2022 – fewer than half the number of people who claimed asylum in total, and negligible in comparison with the overall 600,000-plus immigration total for the year.

Government focus on small boat arrivals is a deliberately cruel and naked ploy to stir up the Tory right and distract public attention from its abject and life-threatening failures on the economy, NHS, cost of living, housing and education. It should be called out for engendering racism and xenophobia, and the figures publicly set against the far, far larger numbers of those absorbed completely uncontroversially by the UK every year. Small boat arrivals are not a threat, still less the “invasion” claimed by Suella Braverman.
Don Keller
London N15

Britain has had its chips

Having spent my entire working life in semiconductors for huge multinational companies and small startups, I can tell you that the idea of the UK having an independent strategy to attract investment in this segment is nothing short of ludicrous (“Can Britain create a chip industry worth its salt?”, Business).

The government should not invest a penny in semiconductors, as there is no way to get a reasonable return; it is too late. That fight has been fought and the UK was not even involved. If we were still in the EU, there might be a path forward but for today we should focus our investments in areas where we have a chance to win. There are lots of other investment candidates, AI and CRISPR being two in which the UK has at least some momentum. But, honestly, the environment in the UK today is not really conducive to wins in these either, as the government is entirely focused on Sunak’s five short-term pledges and the fallout from not being able to meet them.
Simon Prutton
Winchester, Hampshire

Proud to be a trans ally

In reference to Isabel Hardman’s article (“It took female MPs from both parties to change Starmer’s stance on gender politics”, Comment), my guess is that Keir Starmer and others in the Labour leadership realise that the Labour Women’s Declaration and the “gender criticals” do not speak for the vast majority of female party members or voters. They do not speak for this middle-aged woman who’s proud to be a trans ally and is not afraid of her trans sisters and brothers.
Jane McLoughlin
Hove, East Sussex

No substitute for plants

Barbara Ellen’s article about “fair-weather vegans” who aren’t prepared to “commit for the long haul” seems to be based solely on the fall in sales of meat substitutes (“Fair-weather vegans should remember it’s a diet, not a fad”, Comment). Maybe the opposite is true. People who actually read the labels on these products notice that they are often over-priced, over-processed and surprisingly low in protein (jackfruit, for example, has a minute 1.8g of protein per 100g, compared with 19g for chickpeas) and have probably realised it’s healthier and cheaper to cook from scratch. I’d rather cook one of Nigel Slater’s recipes than a Beyond burger any day!
Liz Haigh
Heath, Cardiff

Put empty offices to good use

Last week’s article on office v home working fascinated me, as a (retired) learning and development manager (“Britain has felt the shift to home working more than most countries”, Focus). The social context for coaching and acquiring skills is so important. I was also appalled at the thought of all that expensive empty office space in city centres.

Perhaps some deals could be brokered between charities and private sector businesses for “friendship Fridays”, when the charity could use the offices for staff meetings or centralised training. Identification with an organisation that improves lives or the environment might help provide the sense of purpose many employees crave. A skill-sharing arrangement, with new/inexperienced staff working on a useful project for the charity, could also be of mutual benefit.
Dee Stephens
Wareham, Dorset

Time to tax the rich is now

Will Hutton paints a grim picture of the state of Britain’s public finances and the way they have deteriorated over the last 20 years, but he makes no mention of the large increase in private wealth that has happened at the same time, including the emergence of many billionaires (“Let’s stop kidding ourselves we’re a rich nation and get real… we’ve gone bust”, Comment).

When it is difficult for many in full-time work to adequately feed and house themselves and their families, it is surely legitimate to ask what role properly targeted taxes on land, property, inheritance and windfall profits can contribute to solving the nation’s problems. If we are not going to ask these questions now, when “we’ve gone bust”, then when?
Michael Leigh
London SW18

More jazz, fewer robots

Young classical musicians are taught to play like robots, says Nigel Kennedy (News). One would think that classical courses in conservatoires and music colleges would avail themselves of the proximity of jazz courses to learn to improvise and help themselves deliver a “signature” sound. Throughout the history of music, improvisation has been a valued skill and it would appear not to be taught these days.

Kennedy’s cri de coeur for equitable funding in music barely scratched the surface of the problem facing the arts, which is the sheer incompetence and mismanagement by Arts Council England (ACE) and its relationship with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. Throw in ACE’s flawed strategy, Let’s Create, and you have the current shambles. Only with a root and branch review of ACE will other types of music and art get a place in the sun.
Chris Hodgkins
London W5