It is absurd, cynical and downright stupid to try to tag Steve Bassam and the Yes campaign as latter day Goerings (Letters, September 24).

Absurd because the comparison belittles history and human experience.

Cynical because that kind of language debases political debate. And downright stupid because it lives in a different universe from the truth. Why can't the No campaign argue the point rather than constantly fall back on abuse?

If Arthur Harman thinks the councillors taking decisions in a cabinet at the moment can't make a decent job of providing services, what in God's name does he think the muddle of an extra 400 committee places without any clear vision or leadership will make of it?

At least with a directly-elected mayor we will have a clear manifesto, accountable to us all, with priorities for delivering decent public services and keeping up the momentum of the city rather than the anonymous bureaucratic shambles of the committee system.

In this referendum, we are not electing a mayor. There are no candidates. There cannot be because the people have not yet created the post.

Rather, we are being offered the once-in-a-lifetime possibility for all 200,000 of us voters to choose our leader rather than just a few councillors.

Yes For City Mayor committed itself from the outset to being positive in this campaign. But the Nos have been abusive and negative from the start.

Our phone poll shows 56 per cent of people want to vote Yes. And the responses prove we all respond to informed argument better than we do to abuse and distortion.

You never heard Goering say that.

-Simon Fanshawe, Yes For City Mayor Campaign