No apology needed for Robert Jenrick
I have volunteered with asylum seekers and refugees for some years and met and taught hundreds. The overwhelming majority are good, decent people, often highly skilled professionals and the sort of technical workers this country is crying out for. If Jenrick knows next to nothing about them, it's because he hasn't bothered to find out before voicing his ill-informed opinions.
The BBC should not have apologised. The world needs people like Dr Kandiah, Lord Dubs and Marian Budde, the brave bishop who preached so eloquently at Donald Trump's inauguration service, to speak truth to power and call xenophobia and racism exactly that when they hear it.Anne JohnsDerby
I don't understand the BBC's reaction to the Thought for the Day that mentioned Robert Jenrick. The head of the Sanctuary Foundation, Krish Kandiah, quoted the shadow justice secretary as having said: 'I certainly don't want my children to share a neighbourhood with men from backward countries who broke into Britain illegally, and about whom we know next to nothing.' Kandiah went on: 'These words echo a fear many have absorbed – fear of the stranger. The technical name for this is xenophobia. All phobias are, by definition, irrational. Nevertheless, they have a huge impact.' All true and topical, if trenchant. So why is it objectionable? If Jenrick doesn't want to be associated with the echoing of xenophobic fears, maybe he should stop echoing xenophobic fears.Mark de BrunnerBurn Bridge, North Yorkshire
It seems that nowadays you can't call a xenophobe a xenophobe. It's political incorrectness gone mad...Steven JuliansRomford, London
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