DEAR EDITOR -- John Prescott, Deputy Prime Minister, the man in charge of local funding and the targeting of extortionate council tax rises on Tory constituencies is now trying to convince us that regional assemblies would be a good idea. It is not.
Having broken up Britain, New Labour now wants to divide England into easily bullied Regions. Each assembly will be heavily dependent on central funding just like county councils. The Government would be able to force through policies just by funding or not, individual regions properly, just like councils.
Some regions would be disadvantaged meaning much higher taxes. Sounds familiar?
However, Tony's cronies, favourites and politically useful regions would be helped whilst others would be refused proper funding, just like Worcestershire and other out of favour counties are now. Regional assemblies are part of the process of destroying Britain as a nation state.
Europe has, and is, being regionalised in order to make it easier for a European government to control what were once sovereign countries.
England will cease to be a unified country so that European politicians can more easily control the people, European commissioners will give funding to regions it favours and withdraw it from those deemed undeserving. In other words, exactly the same as is happening in county council funding at the moment.
New Labour pretends regional assemblies will be more democratic. In fact the reverse is true.
Regions are another way they could exert more control over the lives of people with even more manipula-tion, meddling and micro -management by politicians.
We must not be taken in by the propaganda. The last thing we need is another layer of expensive government.
Considering the £200,000 salaries, mas-sive expense accounts, and corruption in European politics plus the wasteful incompetence of New Labour, we can expect much higher taxes than we have even now.
Council taxes have nearly doubled since New Labour came to power.
I expect them to at least double again if regional assemblies are put in place.
We must not be taken in again by the spin machine.
R Fownes,
Wellington Road,
Bromsgrove.
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