YOUR article on the thinking of Lloyd Russell-Moyle (MP: give us our own parliament, October 26) made interesting reading.
I would be more convinced of Lloyd's case for our county to have its own parliament, but for two reasons: If all counties were to have their own legislature, I can only believe that such a splintering of England into such small units would be far from giving us any weight or real authority.
The other reason is that, unlike Lloyd, I don't feel that Sussex has its unique "culture and identity". That may well have been the case pre the Industrial Revolution when Britain was largely a rural society and people had been living in the same area for generations. Now that we are more mobile and many work or even move away from home, is there anything which is unique to Sussex?
But where I do agree wholeheartedly with my MP is for the regions to be given their own parliaments. With the current Government so intent on focusing all power in London, thus depriving the regions of much of their autonomy to make decisions which are necessary for their areas, we are experiencing reactions from the regions against decisions made in London which are seen to be inappropriate in one or other region.
For instance, the laissez-faire response in the North West and some other regions to the PM's decision not to impose Plan B has been to "impose" their own, albeit without the force of law.
In fact, as I have previously suggested in your columns, I would like to see England become a federal state, modelled perhaps on Germany, where each region has a wide-ranging degree of autonomy and with the federal parliament in London responsible for only purely national matters like defence.
Dr Michael Johnson
Kevin Gardens, Woodingdean
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