The Tory government’s proposal that the House of Lords could move to York is absurd, unworkable and a pathetic fig leaf to disguise just how little the Tories truly care about the northern counties.

It’s absurd that Britain has an unelected second chamber in the first place. Every modern democracy has an elected senate. Britain is the only country in the Western world that allows religious clerics into an unelected second chamber without a democratic mandate.

Secondly, there are unanswered questions about it’s workability. Does the government plan to publish a full audit of the cost of this unnecessary move? Will civil servants have to move to York as well? And if so, how much will that cost the taxpayer?

Finally those advocating that it will boost the local economy should produce evidence that York will experience an economic boom, as no evidence has been presented so far that the economy of central London benefits from this outdated relic. Conversely, it may have a disastrous effect on York’s already extortionate house prices.

The plans should treated with contempt. Britain needs an indirectly elected senate not a House of Lords.

Alex Mair,

Whitecross Gardens, York

The Lords move is never going to happen

I notice quite a lot of interest being taken in the surprise suggestion that the House of Lords might be moved to York.

Before we all get excited thinking about all the money it might bring to the area: forget it, it’s never going to happen.

To have one chamber of Parliament 200 miles away from the other is a crazy idea. Watch the BBC Parliament channel this week and you’ll see what’s really going on. The Brexit Bill is currently going through the House of Lords and already the majority of Remoaner members are trying to make amendments to it.

So this proposal to move the house strikes me as a cunning warning shot across the bow by Boris. What he’s saying is; block Brexit and I’ll do far worse than abolish you, I’ll move you all up north.

And he’s right, the idea of that group of liberal, metropolitan elites being made to live amongst ordinary people will fill them with dread. It’s not the location that needs moving on though, its the individual members who still can’t accept we’re leaving.

Dr Scott Marmion, Woodthorpe, York

It’s a Cummings plot worthy of Yes Minister

Move the House of Lords to York? It’s a Cummings plot. First move the noble peers out of London. Then find that they very rarely attend. Raise public clamour for the closure of the “institution” and successfully get it abolished and the building closed.

Who remembers the excitement in York when they announced the proposal to open a Land Registry here? Following the demise of that office and the departure of all those civil servants and Government employees years ago, their building will now become a welcome refuge for the homeless. Perhaps that is what Dominic Cummings thinks any new building for the House of Lords is actually intended to become.

How long would it then be before the building which currently houses the two chambers of Parliament will be turned into an annexe to Madame Tussauds, full of effigies of politicians. No, don’t say it, he no doubt thinks it already is!

Who unearthed this ‘Yes, Minister’ script?

Gordon Gildener,

Appleton Roebuck

I checked - and no, it wasn’t April 1

When The Press arrived with the front page headline ‘Lords could be moved to York – Boris’ (January 20), I had to check the date on the front of the paper. No, it was not April 1.

I know that Parliament was moved to York by medieval kings but it did not remain and returned to London eventually. York was also the home of the Council of the North, which Henry VIII set up to keep an eye on the North after the Pilgrimage of Grace led by Robert Aske. Sadly Robert and many poor peasants and monks were hung, Robert in York.

I guess we will just have to wait and see, but maybe this is a way of getting the Lords off his back. If it does go through the price of houses will go through the roof.

Maureen Robinson, Broadway, York

Welcome to York - but only when you’re elected

I cannot think of any benefit to ordinary people by relocating the House of Lords to York in its present form. But I can think of huge negatives: a vast waste of money on attendance fees and expenses, added bureaucracy, achieving nothing only satisfying a symbolic whim.

A better idea would be to abolish the current membership, introduce an elected second chamber, reduced to 400 in total, then site it in York.

Peter Rickaby,

West Park, Selby