Regional assemblies are almost certainly a non-starter and do not address the real issue which is: Britain's inherently undemocratic system and its unwritten constitution with no Bill Of Rights.

Rather than tinker at the edges with this regional assembly nonsense it's time for a radical overhaul of the way we are governed. Here's one idea :

1. Sweep away county councils (we have to lose a layer to make room for the constituent parliaments) while retaining unitary city authorities and district councils

2. Upgrade the Welsh Assembly to full parliamentary status on the lines of the Scottish model

3. Immediately set up an English Parliament based in York.

Perceptive people will see where this is heading: a federal Britain. There are many working models around the world that work well. Germany, The USA, Australia to name but a few.

The final government structure would thus be local council and Great Britain constituent parliaments dealing with domestic and local issues while a substantially-revamped and smaller federal assembly meets in Westminster to deal with issues such as foreign policy, defence and the other big stuff.

The main advantage with this system is to break some of the totally London-centric mentality that bedevils Great Britain and spread the national wealth around more fairly. Federal states seem to have more than one wealthy city because the financial centres are away from the seats of government as in Washington and New York or Frankfurt and Berlin, for example.

Finally, notice the use of the term Great Britain as opposed to United Kingdom. This federal structure should be a republic with a democratically- elected head of state either constitutional as in Germany and Ireland or executive as in America and France.

The name for this new nation? Easy. The Republic of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

Graham Horne,

Beech Avenue,

Bishopthorpe, York.

Updated: 11:10 Wednesday, June 25, 2003