SIR,
May I, a non-political person who supports the 'yes' campaign, comment on points made by David Davies MP in the Beacon (2nd February)?
Mr Davies claims England suffers from a 'democratic deficit' because he may vote on England-only health matters, whereas English MPs cannot vote on health measures devolved to Wales.
England has over 520 MPs Commons who, whenever they wish, can out-vote the remaining 130 from Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland combined.
Doesn't sound like a deficit to me, but an argument for devolving local matters to the smaller home countries.
He considers that local measures passed in the Welsh Assembly need to be second guessed, usually with years of delay, by the London Parliament.
It is insulting to Wales that our assembly is considered unfit to rule on local matters without Westminster scrutiny, whereas the Northern Ireland Assembly, which includes members allegedly formerly sympathetic to organisations violently opposed to the UK, is not hamstrung in this way.
Successful democracies like New Zealand and Denmark do well with single chamber legislatures.
Finally, Mr Davies asserts that allowing our assembly to pass local laws itself without expensive and time consuming reference to Westminster will lead inevitably to independence.
There will be no 'slippery slope'.
Like most 'yes' supporters, I totally oppose independence and strongly support the home countries working together within the UK.
A 'yes' vote on 3rd March will just give the assembly the tools to do the job in local matters like Scotland and Northern Ireland, without unnecessary nannying.
Our Westminster MPs can better spend their time improving UK-wide policies such as defence, to which Wales makes a major contribution, or arguing for a better deal for Wales by ensuring projects like the electrification of the South Wales-London line are not shelved.
The time to judge past performance and to choose the best people to develop local policies for Wales is at the Assembly elections on 5th May.
Nicholas Hoyal
(Llantilio Crossenny)