ANOTHER week, and another tirade by everyone's favourite student-basher, Sean Kelly. Last week, (while completely ignoring any substantive points that I, or anyone else, have made regarding his ramblings), Mr. Kelly has made in his last letter four more interesting 'points' which merit closer attention.

First, he makes the point that nobody (i.e. the university, St. Martins, or local council) will admit there 'is becoming' a student problem in Lancaster in terms of overcrowding. Perhaps one should consider that if no one is willing to acknowledge this crisis you talk about (except you), that maybe, just maybe, there is no real problem, or at least not the massive problem you seem to think there is. These extra students have been, and are being, housed, and there are still vacancies left in the city.

The second point in this fascinating letter deals with Mr. Kelly's views of an incident of student harassment I witnessed a few weeks ago. Once again, this man insists on talking about things he knows nothing about. He furthermore dismisses this incident, adopting the attitude of 'he was probably asking for it anyway'. Great views on random street violence Mr. Kelly. This comment does not even merit a response.

Mr. Kelly's third point is particularly childish and irrelevant. Here he has turned his keen eye to the fact that my address had changed from what it was in a previous letter. Yes, Mr. Kelly, I moved (during this 'housing crisis' as well). Shocking as it might be for you, but occasionally people do move house. How this is relevant or interesting to you is beyond me, but it does show that you have nothing much to say. Next week, are you going to use that wit to make fun of my name?

One has to give credit to Mr. Kelly for his last point though. At least here he actually proposes a solution instead of simply complaining. He thinks that the university should build more residences on vacant land (presumably, as far away from him as possible). This idea is unworkable however. After all, a man who obviously has his finger on the pulse of Lancaster (he has lived here all of his life you know) should not have to be reminded that five years ago the university basically went broke because they built too much when they thought expansion was on the cards. When circumstances changed, the uni could not afford to pay for these new buildings. They would be foolish to make that same mistake again.

By the way, how many racist comments have been followed by the phrase 'I am not a racist...'. Why, Mr. Kelly, did you feel the need to explicitly point out in your first letter that many of these students are 'coming from China and India as well as other European intakes'? I am not the only one on these pages to point out that your past comments have been at least partly motivated by xenophobia, if not worse.

In a discussion or debate, the general idea is to listen and understand what the other person, or people, have to say, then expose the problems with their argument. Mr. Kelly seems unable or unwilling to do this. I'm sure that there are thoughtful, considered opinions that could be voiced on behalf of locals who feel put out by students, but sadly, Mr. Kelly is not the man for the job.

Anyway, I've made my point in this debate, that having 13 000 people willing to go into debt spending money in Lancaster is not necessarily a bad thing for the city. This is (thankfully for everyone I'm sure) the last word from me on the subject. Take it away Mr. Kelly...

Vincent Miller

Greaves

Lancaster