Like so many luvvie campaigns, Jude Law's open 'Help Refugees' letter is a triumph of simplistic, me-too halo-polishing over the uncomfortable realities of life, writes Robert Hardman

Highgate is very pretty, very expensive and very other-worldly. In this patch of North London, the average property costs £1.5 million.

A third of its 4,800 homes have at least four bedrooms and three-quarters of them have fewer than one person per bedroom. A Georgian gem, the whole place feels like a film set. Hardly surprising, then, that so many celebrities choose to live around here — Jude Law and Benedict Cumberbatch among them.

But don’t let anyone say that they are out of touch with the real world. Perish the thought. After all, our luvvies are forever lecturing the rest of us on our naivety and lack of real understanding.

A few months back, the audiences who flocked to London’s Barbican to watch Cumberbatch play Hamlet had to endure a foul-mouthed rant from the actor, demanding that Britain do more to help migrants and refugees.

At least it made a change from the online ravings of fellow luvvie Russell Brand.

More recently, another member of the club has been blowing his trumpet from the top of the ivory tower. Step forward, Jude Law, champion of the ‘Jungle’ migrant camp on the outskirts of Calais.

This month saw ugly clashes as French police attempted to demolish a section of this miserable, diseased shanty town from which thousands of migrants are hoping to hitch a clandestine ride to Britain via a ferry or the Channel Tunnel.

The French want to rehouse the migrants in a functional but hygienic complex of container units nearby. But the migrants fear that this will mean registering names and fingerprints and thus jeopardising their prospects of claiming asylum when they eventually get to Britain. Hence their opposition.

And stirring it all up have been British anarchists (or ‘activists’ as they call themselves) from No Borders, a movement pledged to creating ‘a world without states’.

Not long before the latest unpleasant scenes, a small celebrity delegation crossed the Channel to protest against the demolition plans. Chief among them was Jude Law. ‘You can’t have an opinion on something until you see it, experience it,’ he told reporters during a somewhat rambling interview.

Following his tour of the Jungle, Law wrote an open ‘Help Refugees’ letter, calling on the Government to intervene. Ministers, he said, should lean on the French to halt the demolition of the camp because of the impact on children.

The letter urged the Prime Minister, as ‘the absolute minimum’, to offer an immediate welcome to any unaccompanied children with links to Britain.

More than 100 other celebrities then put their signature to Law’s letter and have signed up to a ‘buddy system’ to personally help and support unaccompanied children in the Jungle.

Most were the usual chums, similarly insulated from the problems facing poorer parts of Britain where mass migration is the big issue — fewer school places, fewer job opportunities, housing shortages, surgery queues and so on.

Law’s supporters included locals such as Benedict Cumberbatch plus actress Helena Bonham Carter and Monty Python’s Terry Gilliam (who also owns a house in Umbria).

From further afield came Stephen Fry (with homes in Central London and Norfolk and now planning to move to California), designer Katharine Hamnett (who has a home in Spain) and Sir Bob Geldof (London and an old priory in Kent).

Law’s supporters included Benedict Cumberbatch (pictured left) and actress Helena Bonham Carter (right)

There were plenty of dazzling signatures from overseas, where British migration policy is even less of an issue: film producer Barbara Broccoli in Beverly Hills, actress Thandie Newton in Malibu, Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters in New York, Sir Richard Branson on his Caribbean island sanctuary of Necker.

There’s no sign of Bono, but I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before the U2 singer endorses the letter from one of his homes, too.

And anyone giving the document a cursory glance might well nod in agreement. After all, the clear implication is that anyone who disagrees wants to see migrants’ temporary homes bulldozed and orphaned toddlers forced into the open to live in freezing squalor. You heartless brute, David Cameron . . .

But like so many luvvie campaigns — from saving the planet to blocking sensible reform of the BBC — it is a triumph of simplistic, me-too halo-polishing over the uncomfortable realities of life.

For a start, this one neglects the fact Britain is leading the world in dealing with the Syrian refugee crisis at source. Having doubled our Syrian aid package to £2.3 billion, Britain is spending far more per capita than any other country.

Hypocrisy of the luvvies: Jemima Khan (pictured)

The campaign also neglects the fact that large numbers of these unaccompanied children — mainly teenagers, though the youngest is believed to be a ten-year-old from Afghanistan — are from countries that are not at war.

What’s more, it overlooks the fact that the Calais camp should have been demolished ages ago. And while the ‘activists’ try to paint it as one big happy family, you don’t have to spend long there to find it angrily and aggressively divided.

Many parts are bandit country, a place where at least two film crews have been assaulted in broad daylight and thugs wield knives.

‘The way some people depict the situation, you’d think we are talking about eight-year-olds who have single-handedly made their way from a war zone right across Europe only for us to turn our backs on them,’ says Alp Mehmet, vice-chairman of MigrationWatch UK.

‘But it’s not the case. First, they are in France, a wealthy country perfectly capable of affording refuge. Simply calling for us to “do something about the children” may salve people’s consciences, but it’s not looking at it sensibly.’

But the most dangerous consequence of giving free passage to all under-16s in the Jungle would be an inevitable increase in the number of lonely children pressed into the clutches of the people smugglers. How else are struggling families in the developing world going to react to the news that a 15-year-old will be admitted to Britain if he or she turns up at Calais without Mum and Dad?

But never mind. However many people arrive from the EU or elsewhere, it won’t greatly trouble Luvvieland.

It will fall to ordinary people in ordinary places — what some celebrities like to call ‘civilians’ — to handle the problem.

Little wonder some have suggested that if the bien pensants of Highgate and Hampstead want to solve the Calais problem by opening our doors, let them build a new Jungle on Hampstead Heath.

Not surprisingly, the celebrity campaign has already taken a bashing on social media. ‘If Jude Law wants to look after immigrants he can,’ wrote one ex-serviceman on Twitter. ‘They are NOT in danger — they are in France.’

And there is a fairly straightforward divide among the people I meet in this North London celebrity enclave. People of means generally support the luvvies. Those on tighter budgets do not.

‘It’s all very well Jude Law telling us to take more refugees, but he’s not going to have them,’ says John, 46, a London electrician, enjoying a sandwich in the sunshine in Pond Square, round the corner from Law’s house.

MANSIONS, A MEDIEVAL COLLEGE AND A PRIVATE ISLAND! Moving to Los Angeles: Stephen Fry and his husband Elliott are escaping Britain Here are just a few of the people who signed the pro-migrant letter who enjoy very gilded lives. Benedict Cumberbatch Lives in Dartmouth Park, Highgate, North London — average house price £1.49m. Only 2.7 per cent of the population of his area come from EU accession countries (which include the ten countries which joined in 2004 plus Romania and Bulgaria). Just 89 people live in shared houses or flats. Almost 10 per cent of residents have a second address either in Britain or abroad. The average weekly household income is £960 and only 226 people claim Jobseeker’s Allowance. Jemima Khan Bought a stately pile in Oxfordshire for £15m in 2010. Jemima is the trust-fund daughter of billionaire tycoon Sir Jimmy. Her family is worth an estimated £300million and her home is described as a ‘jewel in the heart of Oxfordshire’. The district ranks 316th out of 326 local authority areas on the Government’s deprivation index. There are just five families in temporary accommodation in the whole of West Oxfordshire. Bob Geldof A 12th-century priory near Faversham, Kent, and a flat in Battersea, SW London. Although just 25 miles from Dover, there are few migrants in Faversham: only 1.1 per cent of the population were born in accession EU countries. Emma Freud and Richard Curtis Living in West Village, Manhattan, New York — on a sabbatical from their £18m West London home. Last week screenwriter Richard and writer Emma hosted an Oscars party. They also have a house in a village in East Suffolk, where second-home owners are the only immigrants. Richard Branson Lives full-time on his private Caribbean island of Necker. Branson and his family are the only residents — although the wealthy can pay £40,000 a night to stay on the billionaires’ paradise. By definition, there are no migrants. Terry Gilliam Hampstead and Umbria, Italy. Hampstead Town ward is 1,135th least deprived out of 8,414 wards in England. Only 2.7 per cent of the population were born in EU accession countries. Peter Gabriel (Lives near Bath, Somerset) The Genesis singer is estimated to be worth £49 million. The average house price in Bath is £362,368. The jobless rate is 1.1 percent. Just 1.3 per cent of the population were born in other EU countries, and 5.7 per cent were born abroad in non-EU countries. Just 27 households in the whole of Bath and North East Somerset are forced to live in in temporary accommodation. Rowan Williams Head of Magdalene College, Cambridge, and lives in the Master’s Lodge — a house with walled garden. The former Archbisop of Canterbury will find no shortage of housing wealth in Cambridge, where the average home is £415,289. In the Government’s deprivation index, the city is ranked 227 out of 326 local authority areas in England. Only 72 households in temporary accommodation in the city. Russell Brand Bought actor Laurence Olivier’s old house in Bel Air, Los Angeles, for £1.58m two years ago. The anarchist comedian is hardly surrounded by poverty. Roger Waters A nine-bedroom Louis XVI-style house in New York which he bought for £10.7m in 2006. The Pink Floyd co-founder is worth £160 million. An average property in his area will cost you $1.294 million (£924,000) Stephen Fry Moving to Los Angeles. Escaping from Britain — where annual net migration is over 336,000 — Fry is decamping with his young husband Elliott Spencer. ‘We’re excited about having a new base,’ says Fry. All figures from Official National Statistics and prices based on the Land Registry. Research by Ross Clark Advertisement

He gives me his full name, but I don’t want to get him into trouble with his employer. He’s one of 400 people working down the road on the largest home in London after Buckingham Palace.

Once owned by the family of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, it’s now being done up by a Russian oligarch. With 65 rooms, a five-acre garden and a new two-storey basement, it could probably accommodate the entire child population of the Jungle on its own.

Across the road is the grand 18th-century headquarters of the Highgate Society, the hub of the local community. Outside, I meet Cambridgeshire builder Warren Everdell, 53, in town to see his daughter, Danielle, 26, a dancer.

She rents in a cheaper part of town, but likes coming up here to walk. What do they think of Jude Law’s campaign?

Anarchist comedian Russell Brand (pictured) is hardly surrounded by poverty

‘With no disrespect to people like him, they lead a different life to what we do,’ says Warren. ‘I live near Peterborough and that’s a city that’s been completely transformed by migration.’

(According to the 2011 census, between 2004 and 2009, that city absorbed almost 17,000 migrants and saw a 50 per cent rise in school reception intakes.)

Warren points to a handsome town house and says: ‘If they turned that into a refugee centre, the neighbours would kick up in no time.’

On the privileged streets of Hampstead, many of the professional classes tend to agree with Jude Law. ‘I think we should take more of them in,’ says Heidi, a retired psychotherapist, ‘though not here. They should go to places with more room, like Wales and Scotland.’

They are unlikely to find anywhere to live around here, anyway, with the average home costing £1.5 million. A third are owned without a mortgage. Official figures show that more than half of the 11,152 residents of Hampstead Town ward have a degree and just 90 are unemployed.

So, where would a refugee end up if they turned up in Jude Law’s street? Here in the London Borough of Camden, there is a refugee centre, but it’s a few miles away — the non-leafy, inner-city bit.

There are no luvvies in that neck of the woods, of course. The centre is run by friendly volunteers who offer a free meal and legal advice.

Here, I meet Abdi, 30, a Somali refugee who came to Britain as an unaccompanied minor himself when he was 15. Since then, he has been in and out of prison, done various odd jobs and now lives in a YMCA bedsit, where he is applying to study for a sociology degree.

His aim, he says, is to return home to a peaceful Somalia. What does he think of the Calais situation? ‘You’ve got to help real refugees. But economic migrants? It depends what they are bringing to the country.’