BUSINESS: RED tape is costing UK businesses £100bn a year, according to David Arculus, chairman of the mobile phone company O2, and now head of the Government-sponsored Better Regulation Task Force.

Mr Arculus and his team, having laboured long and hard, have come up with the cost of regulation, which falls unfairly on smaller businesses, but have they actually recommended getting rid of any? Well, no.

Mr Arculus says that £25bn of that sum was spent enforcing rules, which is one of the reasons why regulations are so difficult to cut. Perhaps rather than a Better Regulations Task Force what businesses need is a Fewer Regulations Task Force.

Sounds simple to me, so I wonder why this cannot be? - Peter Troy, Chairman, Darlington Branch, Federation of Small Businesses.

REGIONAL ASSEMBLY

WHILST the prospect of the North-East having a government of its own sounds good, it doesn't seem to have assisted the Scots and the Welsh, according to some voices of experience by the general public emanating from these places.

Some Yes campaign people seem to be scaring us into thinking that this is some last chance of the North-East, that somehow if we don't vote for it, the North-East will be deprived a voice.

Well that's amazing to learn because I was under the impression until now that we did have voices that spoke up for the people in the North-East. Until now I was under the impression that these were the MEPs, Parliamentary MPs and local councillors.

Whilst every region of the United Kingdom ought to have strong voices and equality of rights, somehow methinks that this splitting up of the UK is a sinister effort by outside forces (eg the EU) to divide us as a sovereign nation.

The old strategy of "divide and rule" appears to be being attempted here. To neutralise this we must think on that other great maxim: "united we stand, divided we fall".

Besides all this, I would ask how many politicians do we need to run a country? Aren't we - by voting for a regional assembly with its many more politicians - hastening the day when all we really have are more chiefs than Indians? - Megan Bethany Robinson, Middleton St George.

THE debate on regional government in this and many other columns prompts me to quote the Roman official Gaius Petronius Arbiter (210BC) who wrote: "We trained hard, but it seemed that every time we were beginning to form up into teams, we would be reorganised. I was to learn later in life that we tend to meet any new situation by reorganising; and a wonderful method it can be for creating the illusion of progress, while producing confusion, inefficiency, and demoralisation".

Whichever way the vote goes in November, those on the losing side will, I am sure, have many opportunities over the coming months and years to say: "I told you so". - Bob Jarratt, Richmond.

I BELIEVE the time is right for devolution for the people of the North-East.

The creation of an elected regional assembly would make sure that more decisions affecting the North-East would be made by representatives elected by the people who live in this region and not by faceless bureaucrats in London.

It would provide the North-East with a distinctive political voice which we have lacked in the past.

The anti-assembly people have run a campaign which has been entirely negative and which has failed to provide a vision for the future of the North-East.

People such as Brendan Foster, Sir John Hall, and Ray Mallon have all contributed immeasurably in their own individual way to the well-being of this region and are therefore worth listening to when they say we should vote yes in the referendum. - Paul Rivers, Wallsend.

PRINCE HARRY

I AGREED with your comments (Echo, Oct 22) about privilege and duty, in relation to the fracas caused by Prince Harry outside the nightclub.

Everyone has a need to use self-control, and a prince is not above this.

However, should you not have continued the comment on the lines that this should apply equally to the photographers who were harassing the Prince when he was out in a private capacity? Had he been on Royal duty that night, then there would have been good reason for the photographers to have been there, and no excuse at all for bad behaviour on the part of the Prince. But this was not a duty - just a night out, similar to that enjoyed by countless 20-year-olds everywhere.

If we condemn the Prince for his part in this, surely we must equally condemn the other side. - L Smith, Cleadon Village.

EDUCATION

THE recent publication of the Tomlinson Report on education makes it clear that teachers who practice student-centred learning are right to hang on to what they do.

Consider the new class of sixth-formers who were surprised to be asked if they wanted to understand the subject or to pass the examination. Before they had a chance to reply, the teacher suggested that they compromise and have four terms of developing a working understanding and one of learning to pass the examination.

The students collected information and, after examining the various bits, invented formulas that they tested in a variety of situations. Some needed very little help and others needed a range of assistance to get the required level of understanding. The teacher was then able to report each student's ability accurately to relevant people.

The questions that the examiner of the subject set required students to recognise the formula hidden in a question. Students then had to make a statement that showed that they could recall the appropriate formula. In the final term of the student-centred approach it was a matter of coaching them to recognise what the examiner wanted. It was not always the student who had the greatest level of ability who got the highest grade.

On entering university, students who had spent two years focussed on the examination had to have a year's study to develop an understanding of the subject before they could profitably enter their degree course.

Learning situations that establish where the student is enable the teacher to set steps to help them to put their own building blocks in place to take them to where they need to be. In that way the students 'owns' his or her education and has not had to accept a prescription from the teacher. What is more, it encourages people to take a more constructive part in all aspects of life.

Tomlinson offers a chance to enable education to steadily develop the student-centred method of teaching and to bring about increased participation and greater input to all aspects of life. Those who have experienced prescription and student-centred learning have unanimous ideas about which was best for them. - Bill Morehead, Darlington.