REGIONAL Assemblies are, once again, presented as a spontaneous measure to improve local democracy, without reference to their true provenance as an engine of the European Union.

The English are to be denied a referendum on the abolition of England and, instead, regions will be picked off one by one. Starting with the region where a "yes" vote is most likely, taxpayers' money will be lavished on advertising and tempting grants, then moved to the next region when the required result has been achieved; or, at least, such is the plan.

Derek Boden attempts to set us against our Southern countrymen in a classic "divide and conquer" argument. What he fails to mention is the huge, ongoing and thankless budgetary transfer from the South-east to the rest of the UK, currently estimated to be around £40 billion per year, or 10 per cent of that area's wealth. He also, conveniently, avoids the fact that it manages to afford this by producing 42 per cent of the country's output, with only 35 per cent of its population.

Perhaps they have ended up with such an apparently rotten deal because, contrary to Mr Boden's insinuations, Southerners are statistically under-represented at Westminster by far. His solution to the North/South divide? More snouts and bigger troughs paid for by ever increasing taxation of Southerners. This would, of course, produce the relocation of jobs he is seeking. To other countries.

It is encouraging that Mr Boden, despite the huge resources available for pro-EU propaganda, takes the trouble to write to us in our local newspaper. Perhaps he fears the people of the North-west are not as stupid as he hopes they are and feels he needs all the help he can get. John Morris

Coniston Road

Blackrod, Bolton