Current figures show London has 22,000 empty homes and nearly 114,000 Londoners living in temporary accommodation (Boom Goes The Neighbourhood). The political elite have welcomed individuals and businesses who are allowed to change the demographic of our cities while avoiding paying tax; tax that would directly benefit the people they are evicting. London is slowly being turned into a city for the privileged, just like Manhattan. Who wants to live in a street or block where you’re surrounded by empty properties, with no sense of community and no one to talk to over the garden fence?
Stuart Carruthers
Lewes, East Sussex
Should the Tories continue with their policy of “social cleansing” in London, who is going to be left to empty the bins? Maybe market forces will kick in and refuse collectors can demand £50,000 a year, or the rich can empty them themselves.
Myra Gartshore
Dumbarton
Mars One cannot colonise Mars (The World Is Not Enough). A mission of this magnitude is not for random students or people with a settled family life who want to leave it all behind because of a dream. It’s a mission for scientists, engineers and the military.
Liofa73 on theguardian.com
Thank you to Laura Barnett (Save The Last Dance For Me) for a moving description of finding love in old age. It takes a lot of courage to tell someone you love them when you’ve lived alone for decades and met them only in your 70s or 80s. It was heartening to hear there is still love out there if we have the willingness to be open to new experiences. Believe me, I know.
Graham Watkins
Manchester
As a former heavy recreational drug user, and recently having to support/survive my stepson’s use of weed, I was shocked by the blase tone used by Molly Ringwald. Substance abuse does not make people boring: it wrecks lives, stunts personal progress and places a huge emotional strain on relationships.
Name and address supplied
Millie Mackintosh (How I Get Ready) dresses to complement her husband’s wardrobe choices, is mindful he doesn’t like her in strong makeup, and gets ready with a lymphatic drainage massage. This is a post-feminist irony piece, right?
Kamini Rambellas
London NW10
Two letters from Wirksworth. Tim Dowling’s band plays there. A Marina review next Saturday? World domination the week after?
Martin Gibbons
Prenton, Merseyside
Tim Dowling’s band must have a perennial problem with their bass drum sliding around. When they came to Hunmanby last year, we gave them a great bit of carpet. Wonder what happened to it?
Sue Leyland
Hunmanby, North Yorkshire
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