From Mrs Ros Hill
Nares Gladley Farm, Old Linslade Road, Leighton Buzzard, Beds, LU7 0EA Tel:01525 237456 - Fax:01525 237309 - e-mail: mail@s-b-solutions.co.uk
To: The Rt Rev The Bishop of St Albans, Abbey Gate House, Abbey Mill Lane, St Albans AL3 4HD - 13th October 2002
Your Grace,
OPEN LETTER
I have read that you are to chair the East of England Constitutional Convention in Cambridge on October 24. I would be grateful if you would let me know under whose auspices this convention is being set up, who has been invited to take part and who in particular will be representing my views.
It appears to me that over the last 30 years there has been a systematic undermining of local government and diminishment of their accountability to the electorate by successive national governments.
REORGANISATION OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT - Lead to diminution of Town Council responsibilities and confusion of allocation of responsibilities between Town, District and County.
POLL TAX/COUNCIL TAX - Removed the responsibility of raising business rates from local councils by introduction of the Uniform Business Rate which although collected by the local authority is paid into a national pool and then reallocated by central government.
UNITARY AUTHORITIES - Further changes in organisation with the view of dismembering County councils.
SCOTTISH PARLIAMENT/WELSH/NORTHERN IRELAND AND LONDON ASSEMBLIES - By playing on nationalistic feelings of the three smaller countries which make up the United Kingdom and then suggesting that because London is larger than any of them it also should have an assembly, Government has paved the way for regional assemblies across the whole country.
CABINET SYSTEM IN LOCAL GOVERNMENT - Providing senior local politicians with the carrot of more authority (and more pay) by getting rid of the committee system under which all elected councillors could have a say in decisions before they were taken, direct responsibility of elected members has been further undermined.
REGIONALISATION AND THE EUROPEAN UNION - This country used to have Regions, indeed they were then Kingdoms and all that happened was that they fought between themselves. This divide and conquer approach no doubt is the aim of those in authority in the European Union whose aim is that the whole of the EU will be administered through the Regions. This is already taking place with EU Grant finance being allocated via the Regions and the setting up of other regional bodies such as the unelected Learning and Skills Councils which have further removed responsibilities from local government.
I would also be interested to know why the Church of England is involved with this charade.
Yours sincerely,
Rosalind Hill (Bedfordshire County Councillor 1997 - 1989)
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From: Bryan Smalley
The Old Nurseries, Widford Road, MUCH HADHAM, Herts. SG10 6AT Tel: 01279 - 842185 Fax: 01279 - 842363 Monday, September 9th, 2002
To: The Rt. Rev'd the Lord Bishop of Durham, Auckland Castle BISHOP AUCKLAND DL14 7NR
My Lord,
I wrote to you about my concerns pertaining to your promotion of Regional Assemblies in the North East on the 9th December 2001 and received a reply from you Reference 606/MT/amf dated 18th December in which you suggested that you believed that there was a need to create better lives for underprivileged people. I am of course in entire agreement with that point of view but as I have already explained that is not the purpose of regionalisation. I have already sent you my paper on regionalisation but I have up-dated it since then. I am sending you an updated copy. I am also sending you a copy of the Committee of the Regions' paper 'Major Steps towards a Europe of the Regions and Cities in an Integrated Continent'. This paper disproves the assertion made by many europhiles that regionalisation has nothing to do with the EU. In fact the newly constituted Regional Assemblies will be responsible to the Committee of the Regions in Brussels. The consultation paper also demonstrates that it is propagating a lie by claiming that regionalisation brings democracy closer to the people. If implemented, the elected Assemblies will comprise between 25 and 45 members. At the same time County, District and Borough Councils, where they exist, will be abolished. It is obvious that if this comes to fruition, local representation will be diluted and elected representatives will be more difficult to approach.
An argument put about by the Bishop of Norwich is that Winston Churchill supported a European Union and 'what was good enough for Churchill is good enough for me'. In fact Churchill supported a European Union because he thought that it was a way of controlling the German people's inborn desire to rule the whole of Europe, but he didn't believe that Britain should be part of it. In fact he said: We are with Europe, but not of it. We are linked, but not combined. We are interested and associated, but not absorbed. And should European Statesmen address us in the words which were used of old - "Shall I speak for thee to the King or the Lord of the Host?'" - we should reply with the words of the Shunamite woman: ''Nay sir, for we dwell among our own people".' He also said: 'If Britain must choose between Europe and the open sea, she must always choose the open sea.'
Supporters of the European Union often refer to other member countries as our 'partners' when, in fact, they are our competitors. They must be amused while one British industry after another is decimated by their incompetent, devious and dishonest activities. I have in mind our fishing, farming, mining and steel industries. These industries' redundant employees have become the 'underprivileged people' whose interests you claim are of concern to you.
You are not the only Bishop to be promoting regionalisation. It is asserted that the Bishops will be seen to be impartial. However this is not the case as can be clearly demonstrated.
As I have already pointed out, the Church of England's organisation 'Christianity and the Future of Europe' receives grants directly from the EU and from the EU's 'Soul for Europe' programme in order to promote the EU's case to the British people.
On 21st March 2001 the House of Lords discussed the possibility of introducing English Regions. You were a leading proponent in that debate.
Regionalisation was also endorsed at the Spring meeting of the General Synod of the C. of E. this year.
I understand that tickets for the convention which you are about to chair are difficult to obtain. It is therefore assumed that only supporters of regionalisation will be admitted. This is hardly democratic and appears to be following in the footsteps of the Bishop of Exeter who chairs the South West Constitutional Convention and who bans all opposition.
Constitutional Conventions are clearly a sham. Assemblies are being foisted on to the British people so that we will be further subjected to domination by Brussels.
The most damning point about your activities in this field is the fact that all C. of E. priests swear an oath of allegiance to The Queen who also swore at her Coronation "to govern the peoples of the United Kingdom according to their laws and customs". Our deceitful politicians have forced her to break this oath
If you continue to support the European Union you are in breach of your oath of loyalty to the Queen. I trust you will bear that in mind during your prayers. You might also pray for all those miners, steelworkers, fishermen and farmers who have lost their livelihoods as a result of this unholy alliance. You will be aware of the Holy Bible reference to those who dispose of their inheritance for twenty pieces of silver!
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