Readers' letters - May 15

Isn’t Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham exactly right in calling for urgent introduction of proper regulation of housing?In his area, and elsewhere, most homeless are those evicted by private landlords, even though they might have paid their rent and been model tenants!The fact is that housing here has become problematic by repeated failures of both Conservative and Labour governments over 40 years.Margaret Thatcher’s right-to-buy legislation, coupled with a ban on building new stock, decimated that. The introduction of shorthold assured tenancies took away what little rights private tenants had and now many endure a nomadic lifestyle at the whim of speculators. DS Boyesvia email

Don’t blamethe boomersThe BBC keeps telling us that ‘baby boomers’ owned their own homes at the age of 21 – what a load of garbage.They may have had a mortgage, which in no way is owning a house. Ask those who had their homes repossessed at the time of negative equity. I know many ‘baby boomers’ who have rented all their lives. Many of today’s young will do something ‘baby boomers’ never did – inherit property. The young of today should thank their lucky stars they were not the young people who had to fight in the First and Second World Wars. Before people go to university, they should evaluate the chances of employment when they finish. Obviously, many don’t. One advantage was ‘baby boomers’ didn’t have idiots telling them what they should expect from life.These are the same people who, not so long ago, were telling men that the retirement age would come down to 60 for both men and women. Looking back gives the illusion everything was so simple but we hear a lot about the destination, nothing about the journey. The one thing certain about life is that it is unpredictable – all you can do is get on with it and treat the doom-and-gloom merchants with a pinch of salt.Mick WebbAddress supplied

Cash for HS2 – but not for NHS

Everything is in such a mess in this country – the Government can’t afford to mend our roads, and there have been so many cuts in the NHS that it is just unable to run the way it did before the Conservatives took over. Our roads are such a mess that they will cause many accidents and injuries to road users, even though they extort more money from the motorists through road tax, parking fines, speeding fines and any other thing they can think of. Why are the roads left to disintegrate while billions are being wasted on HS2?Theresa May and Jeremy Hunt must think it is okay to leave people suffering on trolleys in corridors for hours, as long as their highly paid colleagues can save themselves a few minutes a day in order to spend their outrageous annual bonuses.Dave Crouchervia emailI won’t be greeting himHis hairstyle is regrettable, his name even more so, his views and politics definitely lie in the ‘not good’ box, and he’s coming to town!Yes, I’m talking about Donald Trump and his forthcoming visit to the UK, which I anticipate with some trepidation. I note that the big day, July 13, will be Friday the 13. Go figure, as his fellow countrymen would say!I’ve been trying to keep derogatory remarks, (on my part anyway), out of my life, on the life’s too short basis. However, when it comes to ‘The Trumpster’, I really struggle on this count. It’s a safe assumption I won’t be greeting him by blowing kisses, rolling out a red carpet, or asking him for a ‘selfie’, I’ll leave that to Theresa May!CM Langan