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My letter to my regional assembly

English Regions Should Decide Their Own Futures, says
Regional Assembly

This assembly is the embryo form of a local parliament; however it has no public mandate and does not have any claim to the authority to represent the peoples of this region.

I believe that the Maastricht Treaty, set up the “Committee of the Regions” and the Niece Treaty made it a condition for those members of the Committee to have either been elected or selected by an elected chamber in their region.
So it is not an option for this assembly to just continue with the present situation indefinitely, without placing the matter before the people in a referendum. If the people do not support this assembly, it then not only has no mandate to exist, but it also has no voice in the EU.

The Committee of the Regions is part of the EU policy of “regionalism”, in which “countries” are replaced by regions and regions are seen as the natural constituents of the EU rather than countries. For example, documents issued by the North West English Regional Development Agency (RDA) refer to the “North West” as a region of the EU and not as an English region.

I do understand that the concept of the regionalisation of England predates the EU in all its previous forms; however England has now been divided along the EU regional lines and your office in Brussels with its eleven full time members of staff is clear acknowledgement that this particular form of regionalisation is connected to the EU. Do you for instance also have an office in London if not why not?

Bransby Thomas says, “that people may choose to vote in favour of an elected assembly whilst some regions may choose not to go down the elected route at all” If the people do not choose to vote yes to an elected assembly then as in the North East, the people will have made their choice clear, that they do not want an assembly at all, they will not be saying the present assembly is acceptable. Therefore the assembly must either seek a mandate from the people or it must disband.

I shall be writing to my local council to ask them what voluntary form of financial support they are giving to your assembly, and I shall be insisting that your assembly must have a democratic mandate for the work you claim to be doing for the region, otherwise I will be demanding that my local council cease to support this assembly.

The people of the West Midlands did not choose to have this regional assembly and they have not chosen to pay for it.

From the Real No Campaign which unlike the one that got all the money is doing the job of opposing regional assemblies.

Well, surprise surprise, the BBC now seems to be embarking on a campaign to get us all excited about regional assemblies.

On the day after the landslide rejection of the elected version, up pops a special section on the BBC Online website telling us how the voters can get involved in “your” regional assembly.

As far as the North East is concerned the unelected North East Assembly have already been exposed for misusing public money to campaign for an elected version.

The public in the north east has by a margin of 4 to 1 rejected the idea of an elected assembly and therefore the unelected one has no legitimacy. It is a voluntary body funded by ‘voluntary’ subscriptions from local authorities…and therefore ratepayers.

One would have thought that in a democratic society the voice of the people would be final, obviously, the BBC can not believe in the voice of the people or democracy, as it is now embarking on an exercise to help promote something that the people of England as a whole, have no wish for, do not wish to pay for, and the only region where it was thought these assemblies would be welcome, has voted comprehensively against the proposals.

In 2002 the BBC published a poll which showed that 75% of the people wished for these assemblies, that poll has now been shown to have been exactly the opposite of the people wishes, so the questions needs to be raised why is the BBC now promoting something that is proven to be totally against the wishes of the population of this country?