Empty homes not right when people are homeless

IT cannot be comfortable sleeping on the streets, whatever the weather or time of year.

It is also unsafe because, shamefully, homeless people are attacked.

Yet there are many empty properties in York.

This is not right.

How long can a property be kept empty?

I fear that it can be decades.

Also some people might not be without a home but are in accommodation which is a health hazard due to, for example, mould.

Rose Berl,

Vine Street,

York

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Nicotine addicts need help not higher taxes!

RECENT government adverts stating that smoking is bad for health ('2 in 3 smokers are likely to get cancer'), is irksome.

Governments have issued these warnings for decades yet turn a blind eye to tobacco and vaping industries because it's "too early to evaluate its harmful hazards". This is pure profit-motivated numpty!

Vapers are heavily taxed - bringing more rewards to Government coffers, while nicotine addicts suffer and die.

When will morality surface? Nicotine addicts require help and should not be forced to pay 30 pieces of silver because of their addiction.

Help not taxation would be a caring responsibility.

Phil Shepherdson,

Woodthorpe,

York

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Time to demolish the House of Lords

I AM sure more laws would have gone through if it wasn’t for members of the House of Lords being able to hold back proceedings with more and more amendments requested until time runs out.

Isn’t it about time this decrepit upper house was demolished? Half of the old codgers literally have a car waiting while they sign in then get back in the car and leave the building and this is just so they can claim their allowance for “attending”.

This is money grabbing at its worst.

They should be ashamed of themselves, especially as most of them are certainly not in desperate need of the money. Just think how much money can be saved.

Ann Cruickshank,

Oxford Road,

Andsell,

Lytham St Annes

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Technology creates gulf between generations

WHEN I was growing up in the 1950s my dad was a bit old fashioned - or so I thought at the time.

On Sunday afternoons the best front room which was not normally used through the week, was opened up, the fire lit and made cosy for the relatives to visit.

I was six or seven years old and was told to sit quietly in the corner, and only “speak when spoken to”.

Today, nothing has changed, just that technology has replaced my dad's stern warning - kids today are handed their parents' phones and told to keep quiet and entertain themselves by watching pointless YouTube videos etc.

Very addictive, these modern kids become glued to their phones and conversation with them becomes almost non-existent.

As a grandparent I feel I have a lot to offer to my grandkids, but I am shut out.

They are hooked up to digital entertainment, usually from the USA - I can tell that as my boys speak with an American accent now.

Stuart Wilson,

Vesper Drive,

Acomb,

York

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Now here's an idea...

OBSERVING the seven-year-old children eating their pizza and chips at my god-daughter's birthday party, washed down with copious amounts of tomato sauce, I thought that the person who developed a method of putting the wasted sauce back into the bottle would make a fortune.

D M Deamer,

Penleys Grove Street,

Monkgate,

York