Why should we stay at home?

With reference to last week's Last Word by stay at home Hannah Gray. Surely, Ms Gray is not suggesting that all young people stay at home and watch a DVD, as opposed to gathering on Windmill Hill! Encouraging such couch-potatoism is surely not the answer. What is next week's article going to be about - Youth obesity. Surely, given the coverage of Ms Gray's recent running escapades, I would have thought she would have been a bit more enlightened about an active and healthy lifestyle as opposed to staring at four walls and listening to McFly (or whatever is en vogue in the current hit parade).

Young people will congregate because that is what they do! In the words of Stephen Morrisey:

Take me out tonight,

Where there's music and there's people who are young and alive.

Need I say more...

Anyway, I do not see any articles decrying the congested Post Offices full of old people on pension day! Lay off of our young people!

JAKE PENGE, 'On behalf of Hitchin's Youth'

* I am a 17-year-old girl and I have to say I disagree with your Last Word column (Comet July 13).

Spending every day indoors can be stressful, too. Some parents do not allow other children into their homes. Also we are at the age where we are just learning about true friendships. We do not want to sit down and watch DVDs all the time. Spending time with your friends outside is a way to relax. The people who spend their nights in Hitchin on Windmill Hill are going out to see their friends. Would you rather they hung outside people's homes or tried to sneak into clubs? I believe the only people you should worry about are those who go round in big groups and sit round the local shops at night.

We are always being told that we spend too much time in front of the television and now people say they would rather we do just that.

VICKY, Stevenage