IT IS very brave of the Venetian people to clamour for independence from the rest of the country, ending 150 years of a united Italy.

Surely their case is cast-iron.

The region, which has Venice, the jewel of the Adriatic, as its capital, has a healthy annual gross domestic product (GDP) of about £120 billion.

Yet, scandalously, 50 per cent of that wealth leaves the region in national taxes, meaning that it contributes 10 per cent of Italy’s total GDP.

The exploited citizens of Veneto are pouring in cash that goes straight into the pockets of bureaucrats who are failing Italy.

It would be laughable if it were not so tragic.

Venetian taxpayers’ money should go to make the local region stronger.

Not to bail out an Italian bureaucracy that is corrupt and out of control.

Aled Jones, Mount Crescent, Bridlington