SIR – I see the Select Committee on Transport highlighted the price differences between private and public charging of electric vehicles.
Before scourging the fee providers, speak to HM Revenue and Customs, which has just decided that public chargers must charge the full 20 percent sales tax instead of the 5 percent domestic rate.
Malcolm Benson
Beckenham, Kent
Refuge for refugees
SIR – We share Chris Philp’s (Commentary, July 28) pride in the UK’s role in enshrining rights in the UN Refugee Convention, which celebrates its 70th anniversary this week.
The Minister of Immigration, however, fails to recognize a simple and disturbing truth: the government’s new proposals, as set out in its Law on Nationality and Boundaries, would seek to ruthlessly disregard the Convention and destroy its fundamental rationale, the human one Distress about the method poses of arrival.
British participation in the United Nations-led resettlement program, which was valuable but accessible to few, has been drastically reduced. Despite repeated pressures, the government has failed to make promises to increase the number in the future. Other countries have done far more overall: France, Spain and Germany each submitted three times more asylum applications than Great Britain in the past year.
Nobody wants vulnerable people to risk their lives at sea, but until the government has a clear plan to offer alternative safe routes to people who do not have access to the UN system, these dangerous journeys will continue.
More than 300 organizations have joined the “Together with Refugees” coalition and are calling for a more effective and humane approach. Polls show that a majority of the UK public supports this goal.
Conservative Prime Ministers since Churchill have given those seeking our protection a fair hearing on British soil no matter how they arrived. This government must do the same and uphold the convention into its 70th year.
Mike Adamson
Chief Executive, British Red Cross
Tim Naor Hilton
Chief Executive, Refugee Action
Sonya Sceats
Chief Executive, Freedom From Torture
Enver Solomon
Managing Director, Refugee Council
Andrea Vukovic
Director, Asylum Matters
Sabir Zazai
Chief Executive, Scottish Refugee Council
The cleanest dishes
SIR – For anyone raising a young family, a dishwasher (Letters July 29) is an essential tool to help prevent the spread of enteric bacterial and norovirus infections.
Washing by hand only helps spread these pathogens.
Peter M. Hills
Andover, Hampshire
Vaccines for under 18s
SIR – My daughter will be 18 years old in just over three weeks. Despite the government’s announcement that 17-year-olds can be vaccinated within three months of their 18th birthday, she can’t find a place to do it before they turn 18. Why?
There are reports in the media of low vaccination rates among adolescents and vaccines that are thrown away because they are not being used. That’s crazy. My daughter plans to go to college in September and I want her to be protected as much as possible.
Boris Johnson also says he is considering holding students off lectures unless they are fully vaccinated. It’s a little short-sighted if the government doesn’t realize that some students won’t have their vaccinations by the time they start university.
RM tag
Billingshurst, West Sussex
