DEPUTY Prime Minister John Prescott has announced that the North West is to hold a referendum next year on whether to have a regional parliament.
I predict now that it will be given a knock out punch. It is quite simply unwanted, unnecessary and utterly uninteresting.
Only Labour could be misguided enough to want to rip apart our present system of local government - which works - and replace it with a new layer of bureaucracy costing millions.
Regional devolution will take a butcher's axe to the North West political map. Cumbria, Lancashire and Cheshire County Councils will all be replaced by one remote tinpot parliament in Liverpool or Manchester.
This measure will only succeed in making politics even more irrelevant at a time of soaring voter apathy.
To put it into perspective, it is worth noting the Monster Raving Loony Party polled more votes in the last General Election than the Government did in its farcical 'regional devolution consultation'.
David Sumberg, North West Conservative MEP
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