I was interested to read your Comment where you highlighted record levels of debt after the Christmas spending spree (January 9).

More York people are becoming aware of the wider problems of international debt. The plight of some of the poorest countries in the world is accentuated by huge and unmanageable debts which occurred after Western institutions made unwise loans after the oil boom. Indeed, one can feel perhaps even more sympathy for these overseas debtors because to some extent they were the victims of circumstances beyond their financial control.

The York Jubilee 2000 Coalition together with groups throughout the country and the world is campaigning for a more realistic response from those who hold the purse strings in our world economy.

We want a carefully planned one-off cancellation of some of the worst debts of some of the poorest countries, with an insistence that the poor really do benefit as a result.

People have been signing petitions, sending letters and raising awareness of the need to break the chains of debt which cruelly affect education, health services and the poorest of the poor.

I should like to remind readers of a forthcoming event at All Saints School in Nunnery Lane on February 22 at 7.30pm when Michael Taylor, the President of Jubilee 2000 and a well known writer on these questions, will be the key speaker.

We are expecting it to be yet another well attended event.

Phil Hoar,

York Jubilee 2000,

Heworth Green,

York.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.