THE European Union and the part this country plays as a member is under discussion and I think there are people who want a vote on whether we sign up to the amended arrangement which is now not being called a constitution.

I voted against the Common Market at the time of the referendum because I did not believe the case for it was being presented honestly. It was clear to me from reading the Treaty of Rome some form of merger was the ultimate intention, and this fact was being obscured by the chorus of voices calling for entry.

Since then, there are developments with which I disagree, but what I have liked is the benefits to countries which have entered and the fact that disagreements are handled at the negotiating table and not resolved on the field of battle with the flower of youth of European countries being killed and maimed.

I am far more worried about the might of the Americans, particularly when they are acting unilaterally and in defiance of the United Nations.

Geoffrey Bulmer, Billingham.

I FIND myself reluctantly agreeing with Charlotte Bull (HAS, Aug 6) that there is a link between the EU and the formation of unitary authorities. The decision to form unitary authorities in Durham and Northumberland, but not in North Yorkshire, was a cynical exercise by this minority Government pushing the centralist line as far it could hope to get away with.

Similarly, the repackaging of the European Constitution as a treaty was a disingenuous act of a discredited Prime Minister.

Both decisions need to be put to the test of a public referendum.

Anything less would be a slap in the face of democracy by a Government elected by barely one-fifth of the UK population and an unelected Prime Minister.

Perhaps it is also time for the people of the North-East and Yorkshire to decide whether democracy would be better served by independence from the corrupt practices of both Westminster and Brussels? Long live Northumbria?

Leslie Rowe, Richmondshire Green Party, Brompton-on-Swale, North Yorkshire.