Letter: One Parliament is enough

THE PRESSURES towards European federation and a Scottish 'Parliament' spring from the same sources: the political classes and the media, who share a compelling interest in the expansion of government and public expenditure at every level to provide themselves with ever-increasing employment and status.

Neal Ascherson ('Under the guise of 'controversy' we are offered wagon-loads of trash', 3 July) is an enthusiastic promoter of the Euro power-generating industry, as are the chattering classes in Britain. No matter that it wastes annually more than a billion pounds that could otherwise benefit our own economy or that it is ruining our trade and influence in the world of the future - the Americas, Middle East and Africa, East Asia and the Pacific Rim.

Likewise, Mr Ascherson champions the embryonic Scottish 'Senate'. This, like the European Commission, is wholly unelected, but is intended to lead to the imposition of a 'Parliament', thereby making Scotland the most governed country on earth with local authorities under a 'Parliament' alongside a Scottish Office answerable to Westminster subject to Brussels, Strasbourg, Luxembourg, etc. Acres of new offices will be required to house the bureaucracy spawned by this power-structure, as well as offices for Members and the media. Why squander millions on derelict council housing estates, dilapidated hospitals or obsolete industrial plants when such a golden opportunity as a new layer of government arises?

No wonder that Mr Ascherson is horrified by Professor Tim Congdon's recent article in the Spectator arguing that Britain would be more prosperous outside the European Union. That would spoil the fun for the politicians and their thousands of hangers-on. So Mr Ascherson and the rest can argue against Home Rule for the UK yet for Home Rule for Scotland - which would be utterly absurd were it not that this is the ideal combination for the proliferation of artificial parliaments and the maximising of the business of politics.

Vivian Linacre

Musselburgh, Lothian