Today's Letters

LETTER IN NEWCASTLE JOURNAL
22nd September 2004
Elected Assembly will undermine local government
As a recently elected member of the London Assembly, I strongly urge thevoters of the North East to vote No to a similar body in the North East.

The setting up of regional assemblies is a deliberate fraud, designed togive the impression that decisions will be taken closer to them, when infact the whole thing is an exercise in weakening local control andgiving more power to central and Brussels government.

The Mayor andAssembly in London is a body which administers large budgets and whichsimply carries out orders from afar. We are effectively elected civilservants with limited scrutiny powers and no power over legislation.On everything from Congestion Charging to the micro detail of local policy, we depend upon Brussels or Westminster diktat. We have just lost our traditional London buses because of a Brussels ruling.

If you do vote Yes, you will not be voting for local decision making. You will be voting to strengthen centralised decision making in London and Brussels,with a team of 25 ineffective politicised local scrutineers runningalong in the wake with neither the resources nor the will to effectivelychallenge threats to local interests.That is no substitute for effective local government.

The foundation stone at London's City Hall which I pass every day bears the inscription"home of London Government". Some "Government". I call it the BlarneyStone, but I am not tempted to kiss it.
Damian HockneyLeader,
UK Independence Party Group London Assembly
City Hall
LONDON
SE1 2AA
Tel 020 7983 4883