If the House of Lords does indeed come to York we may see a change in the peers once they are exposed to the Yorkshire air.

We may see Their Lordships leaving York station wearing flat caps and leading whippets on lengths of string (keeping pigeons will be optional). And when in session, they will be expected to discuss their business in broad West Riding accents. The peers will become Yorkshire-ised. I look forward to the day.

David Martin, Rosedale Avenue, Acomb

Lords in York would be ‘transformational’

I AM no fan of Brexit or Boris Johnson. But the scale of his victory last month changes politics even more than at first seems. Boris is now free of the visionless Tory right-wingers who drove Brexit. Furthermore, he is cleverer than most of them, and understands that for him to remain as Prime Minister he must deliver for the North.

There are many debates to be had about infrastructural investment, including transport, and the nature of devolution. But, as someone writing from the outside, I would point out that Yorkshire would have enormous political, economic and cultural clout if it had one unitary county-wide authority, with a Mayor and Assembly.

The current debate about moving the House of Lords to York should be considered separately from all this. Symbols matter: the second chamber in York would be utterly transformational. It would make York more significant on the UK stage than Edinburgh, to give an example, especially if there was also Yorkshire-wide devolution.

Let’s not get diverted by sterile arguments about cost or the relevance of the Lords, but rather speak with one voice, and get some momentum behind relocating the Lords in York.

John Gemmell,

Trentham Road, Wem, Shropshire