SIR,

I'll leave it to others to pursue their personal points of view in the ongoing Welsh/ English debate but, being a bit of an old pedant, I would like to correct some of the assumptions made by P Young of Chepstow.

For a start, I'd like to know where he has been hiding for the past 17 years, as the towns that he quotes as being "in  Monmouthshire" are anywhere but.

Yes, all of those towns lie within the historical region or "retained county" of Gwent, which lives on only in the name of our local Police and the Lord Lieutenant, but that's another story altogether.

However, since 1996, Newport has been a separate County Borough and is now a city in its own right; Cwmbran and Pontypool are in Torfaen, and Abertillery and Ebbw Vale can be found in Blaenau Gwent.

Perhaps Mr Young could come up with a few places which are actually in Monmouthshire if he wishes to prove his point?

I can only think of four towns in Monmouthshire: Monmouth, Chepstow, Caldicot and Abergavenny. Perhaps also Usk but I understand that the residents sometimes like to class themselves as a "large village", so they can win that category of the Wales in Bloom award, I'll leave that one open for further discussion as I don't want to start another debate. Oh dear, I think I just did...

George Weston

(Llanishen)