SIR - Many people must be worried about the proposed expansion of Worcester and the apparent Stalinist inevitability of it all.

The present political system conspires to frustrate us by allowing our national political parties to appoint and control not just our MPs but also our local councillors, so they are all forced to do what their national party considers a priority and often to ignore what is important to local (Nimby) interests.

There are all the trappings of representation around us but we have less and less influence over an increasingly centralised state.

Surely this must make being a politician a very uncomfortable and frustrating job. Hardly anyone joins our political parties any longer. Few people trust politicians to do more than follow their party line and any personal ideas and convictions they may have are most likely unexpressed in case our politician is thought too independent-minded to be promoted to ministerial office or chairman of a council committee.

We pride ourselves on our independence as a nation and our belief in democracy and free speech but we can't openly say what we think any longer or have much influence over those who rule over us. So who is really steering the ship and where is Britain going? And if we don't like what's happening what can we do about it?

Jim Evans,