• In his first 12 months as home secretary, Sajid Javid sent 8,637 people back where they came from.

Prof Becky Tunstall

University of York

• Our 19th-century forebears would have excavated a canal across the UAE by now (Report, 20 July).

Michael Heaton

Warminster, Wiltshire

• Christine Allen, of the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development, writes of the excellent work being carried out to counter climate change by many people in the Catholic church (Letters, 13 July). It’s a pity, therefore, that all these efforts are entirely vitiated by the church’s wholly unreasonable policy on family planning.

Roger Plenty

Stroud, Gloucestershire

• While I appreciate Rebecca Goodman’s comparison of cat food (Should you spend more on posh brands?, 20 July) I know one thing from the cat who is not mine but favours me with his company. … Whatever you feed them will be voraciously welcomed up to the day when you have stockpiled vast quantities. Then your offering will be treated with disdain, and you will observe an Oscar-deserving depiction of a starving animal. Let them eat mice.

Anne Cowper

Swansea

• Jane Lawson’s letter (19 July) reminds me of a colleague’s encounter while she was on holiday in Spain with her two adult daughters. All three were relaxing topless on the beach when a voice piped up: “Hello, Miss!”

Deirdre Burrell

Mortimer, Berkshire

• I’m not sure if it was Izal (Letters, 20 July), but the loo roll in our student digs 60 years ago declared on every sheet that “this is a full-length roll”, and rather disturbingly, “once used always used”.

Gill White

Banbury, Oxfordshire

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