Dome 2

The Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott has announced the North West is to hold a referendum - in the autumn of next year - on whether to have a regional parliament. I predict now that the North West will - in true two Jags style - give the idea a knock out punch.

It is quite simply unwanted, unnecessary and utterly uninteresting.

Only Labour could be misguided enough to want to rip apart our present system of local government - which works - and replace it with a new layer of bureaucracy costing the taxpayer millions.

Regional devolution will take a butchers axe to the North West political map. Cumbria, Lancashire and Cheshire County Councils will all be replaced by one remote tin pot parliament in Liverpool or Manchester. This measure will only succeed in making politics more irrelevant at a time of soaring voter apathy. To put the proposal into perspective it is worth noting the Monster Raving Looney Party polled more votes in the last general election than the Government did in its farcical 'regional devolution consultation'.

I urge the North West public kick this dangerous idea out of existence. The last thing we need is our very own Millennium Dome.

North West Parliament = Millennium Dome MK 2