SIR, It has been reported that all proposed police mergers have been cancelled due to cost.

I would suggest you don't believe a word of it!

Mike Foster said on BBC Hereford & Worccester, when interviewed about it `the original proposal came from senior police officers'.

He is not lying, but like all politicians, he is being very economical with the truth.

The original order to merge our police forces (also the fire brigades and ambulance services) came from our UK law makers in Brussels. It matches the regionalisation of the UK, which must proceed unhindered.

The order from Brussels came to No 10, who had agreed it in some earlier agreement or other, who then told the Home Secretary - who then told senior police officers `to get on and do it'!

It is to the credit of the police that, in spite of absolutely nobody wanting to merge anything, they have come up with a plausible reason to cancel, on the grounds of cost. Well done. Don't celebrate yet, though. When Brussels tell No 10 to `do it' - No 10 does it!

Now, if we were to actually leave the EU club and save ourselves the generous £41m a day it currently costs us, and run our own country again for ourselves, we could then decide on the viability or otherwise of any mergers, anywhere in the country.

Stanley Parr Pershore