WHAT a shambles! The Government continues with its constitutional reform programme, ignoring the consequences of one change in the constitution upon other parts of the constitution.

The Prime Minister is expert at demolition, but an amateur at rebuilding the structures he has attacked. In any final analysis of the wrecking of the British Constitution, what is obvious to everyone is that a heavy burden will fall upon the shoulders of the British people.

We will end up with more politicians, a divided United Kingdom, a bigger bureaucracy, a diminished parliament at Westminster, a strengthened Downing Street executive, a strangled second chamber, a mishmash of voting systems, a stronger unelected European Commission, and a higher tax bill for us all.

Is this what is meant by the third way?

NIGEL EVANS MP, Conservative Constitutional spokesman, House of Commons, London SW1.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.