Those disgraceful assemblies

I've recently been in contact with my local council about the subscriptions they pay to the East of England Regional Assembly which is one of the many un-elected European Regions of England that, as the recent vote in the North East has shown, have no mandate to exist. Hertfordshire County Council paid £34,000 of our money to this toadish body.

I was forthright in my communications and they had the courtesy to respond.

You paid £34k. To an agency that we don't want and that has absolutely no mandate? It's criminal.

There is little wonder that people are turning off politics. These artificial European Regions of England are not wanted, as shown by the massive defeat in the North East, and yet they continue to exist.

It's almost as if they hoped we wouldn't notice.

Please, stop paying them before we stop paying you.

Tina Parker replied:

A recent enquiry to the Leader of Hertfordshire County Council elicited the response below:

We pay a subscription of £34,000 to belong to EERA. I have looked at the case for staying in, or coming out of EERA. We could (and if appropriate) will come out of EERA and in that case would seek to persuade other Councils to do the same. However, at present, it is my view that we need to remain in membership, so long as there is a chance of influencing EERA to maintain its current position of withdrawing its endoresement of its own plan.

Regards
Tina Parker
PA to Robert Ellis
Leader of Hertfordshire County Council

Of course, the plan this email refers to is not made clear and we should not draw the conclusion that the plan in any way relates to the destruction of the assembly. It's my guess that it relates to housing instead.

I responded:

Staying in adds legitimacy to a body that has none. Certainly the government would have us believe that it does but legitimacy is derived from the voter who has, yet again, been hoodwinked. Being voted into government does not mean that they have a remit to do as they will and we can see this to be the case as this government and its supporters (active or conspiratorial) go from one constitutional crisis to the next.

To continue to pay money to this body in the hope that it will give something back in return is not a satisfactory position to take. They have been given the proverbial inch.

Many thanks for your response.

Posted by John at March 15, 2005 05:06 PM | TrackBack