SIR - Nice to see another letter from Ted Showell (Letters, March 26) - long overdue!

In reply, I would like to say that regions are most definitely here to stay - like it or not, Ted.

You say "we still have our counties", but we don't. The regions have been in place for many years, under rules laid out in the Charter Of Rome. So they go back a very long way - 1957, in fact.

It was about the same time as postcodes came in - remember? It was not just coincidence, you know.

Regions of the UK were originally laid out during the Second World War, in case of invasion, and later dropped, but they were resurrected when the so-called Common Market came along.

We still call them counties and fondly remember them as counties, but like morning mist, they will evaporate and go in May 2009 at the signing of the sixth and final EU treaty.

They then become illegal - like imperial measures in pounds and ounces, feet and inches and our pints of course. Not optional - but illegal, with corresponding legal penalties for disobedience.

I personally don't like any of it and think we should leave the EU.

All we actually have to do is get a Bill presented to Parliament cancelling the ECA72 Agreement and we are out - but they won't do it, so we are stuck with it.

Stanley D Parr, Pershore.