The Home Secretary has come up with a good plan for children who came from Calais in 2016 [“Javid eases May’s hostile environment with Calais children reprieve,” Sept 13].

I hope it marks the start of a new era in the Home Office’s treatment of child refugees. “Calais leave” gives about 200 children new rights but the leave is restricted to those who came to the UK after the Calais camp clearances. In some cases, those who arrived through safe and legal routes before the clearances have had their claims for asylum rejected and now face deportation.

Rather than giving different groups different rights, the UK should ensure that all children can access a fair and humane asylum system that provides long-term safety and security.

If the Home Secretary is really committed to easing the hostile environment, I encourage him to extend his offer to all refugee children who came from Calais during that time, and to help more find sanctuary in the UK. Refugee children still live in car parks and woodland across Northern France.

In Greece, more than 2,000 child refugees are homeless, and some of those in camps have attempted suicide. The UK can help these children by committing to take 10,000 over the next 10 years. That’s just three children per council per year, but it would show that the “hostile environment” for child refugees is a thing of the past.

Alf Dubs

Labour, House of Lords

EDITOR'S REPLY

Dear Alf

YOU speak with moral force and clarity of the plight facing child refugees.

Sajid Javid has, as you say, done a “good thing” for those children who have arrived since 2016. We should not underestimate the symbolism of this step by the Home Secretary. I know from my own experience of raising these issues in the Cabinet how unsympathetic the Home Office was when it came to asking for help. Dismantling the “hostile environment” that was created during those years is going to take time — and you are right to point to the arbitrary and unfair distinction between children who sought asylum here pre and post 2016.

Britain is more than able to provide a home for 30,000 refugees over three years. We should make a start now, and repair our country’s tarnished reputation for compassion.

George Osborne, Editor

We should cherish John Lewis shops

THAT the John Lewis Partnership is in trouble is very bad news indeed, and a bellwether that forewarns us of the death of the high-street retailer.

I am as guilty as the rest of you for buying online, not for cheaper products but because it is easy. But there are so many things that we need to see in the flesh, test for comfort and check the colour of before we buy. I would no more buy a sofa online than I would buy a wife (what a strange concept that is).

High-street retailers struggle to compete with online stores but we lose them at our peril. Once we pass the tipping point that drives shops into the ground there is no way back.

I, for one, would forgive John Lewis for quietly dropping its “never knowingly undersold” tagline. The price is worth paying.

Mike Summers

Cable must grasp reality of Lib-Dems

When will Vince Cable wake up and realise there will be no return to frontline politics for the Lib-Dems, unless he admits he was wrong on university fees and apologises to the young people of this country?

If the Lib-Dem leadership give their party members the policy of free university education that they keep voting for over and over again at conference, then all will be well. But if Cable continues as he is — stubbornly refusing to move his own position on university tuition fees — he is just banging the nails into the coffin of the Lib-Dems.

Surely his years in the coalition government from 2010 to 2015 must have taught him that politics is the art of compromise? Cable’s attempts to relaunch the SDP just defy parody.

Nigel Boddy​

Former Lib-Dem parliamentary candidate

King was too harsh on Serena Williams

Billie Jean King enjoyed it when the spectators applauded her during her playing career [“Tennis legend Billie Jean King slams ‘totally out of line’ behaviour”, September 13]. With regards to Serena Williams in the US Open final, though, King’s comment does not consider the booing by spectators against the ineptitude of the umpire, which is unusual for spectators.

King has not said a word about how a player might feel to have a game taken away from them at that stage of a crucial set. Williams showed her quality by congratulating the winner, Naomi Osaka, despite her harsh treatment by the umpire.

I hope there is not an element of racism here, from which both Williams sisters suffered and are still suffering. It must stop. They are role models for future tennis players.

Sunil Kumar Pal

Hire bikes are still the way forward

There are now many different organisations offering bicycles for hire in London. The “Boris Bikes”, now sponsored by and displaying the Santander logo (previously Barclays), have secure docking stations. The other bicycles for hire, in colours ranging from yellow to orange, have no docking stations. They can be picked up and left anywhere, often causing obstructions. Furthermore, these bicycles can be easily vandalised.

Many have had their locks broken and are being used freely by those who do not wish to pay. The Santander bicycles are so sturdy that if hit with an axe, the axe may break —not these machines.

If TfL would give Santander bicycles more publicity it would make London a better place. This is similar to regulating taxis and minicabs.

David Teles