THE people of North West England have had enough of the constant meddling of the borough and county boundaries over the past 30 years, and I believe they should be left well alone.

However, regional government is a different matter altogether and I do not accept some of the scaremongering excuses being put forward against a North West Regional Assembly. The so-called Manchester versus Liverpool takeover could easily be avoided by housing the new parliament in an excellent building in Cheshire, in the same manner that Australia sited their capital in Canberra to take the heat out of the Sydney versus Melbourne power struggle.

Our relatively near neighbours, the Scots, voted in a large turnout by a significant 4-1 majority for their regional parliament. Thanks to the truly democratic proportional voting, they have a Lib-Lab coalition which, far from producing weak government, has delivered better education, health service, care for the elderly and better public transport.

I have not noticed any demonstrations of people in Scotland demanding to return to Westminster.

TOM CULBERT, Knowsley Road West, Clayton-le-Dale.