I FEEL that I must write in to reply to some of the comments made by Mr Cannon (LET, November 29).

Firstly, as a member of the UK Independence Party, I am sure that none of the irony will be lost on him when one looks at the fact that, despite being so anti-EU, they have a number of members who sit in the European Parliament, being paid handsomely by the institution that they claim is so awful!

The idea of a United States of Europe is simply laughable, an idea put forward by scaremongers and Eurosceptics, in the hope that they can persuade others to follow their thinking.

If unelected quangos are such a big issue in Britain today, then one would have thought that the opportunity to replace this with an elected assembly would have been welcomed by Mr Cannon, but this would not seem so.

The sheer amount of work taken on by quangos such as the NWRDA would be too much for councils to deal with, so surely an elected assembly would offer more transparency?

Britain has a fantastic opportunity to not only be part of the EU, but to help in leading it, and it is perhaps time that people embraced the benefits such a position could have, instead of using the now defunct ideal of regional assemblies to try and scare people into voting UKIP come the next European election!

PAUL DWYER, The Paddock, Oswaldtwistle.