SIR,

I have been thoroughly entertained first by RW Bradley's splenetic fury at Welsh road signs and the distribution of bilingual official documents in Monmouthshire, and then J Thomas's robust retort in last week's letters pages.

All students of Monmouthshire history know it has been disputed territory since time immemorial, and that from the enactment of the Laws in Wales Act 1542 which did not list Monmouthshire amongst the Welsh counties until the Local Government Act 1972, which formally incorporated Monmouthshire into Wales, the English and Welsh both routinely claimed the county as their territory.

On one view, Monmouthshire was, in effect, annexed to Wales in 1972 in a late night Commons vote that took place with no public consultation.

Forty years ago the positioning of the border made little practical difference.

Since devolution it makes a large difference.

Were the Assembly to attain tax raising powers, for example, it would make a huge difference. In that instance, it's not unthinkable that the people of Monmouthshire would demand a plebiscite to determine whether the county does in fact lie in Wales or England, or perhaps, a far more romantic and compelling prospect, in a special category all of its own, funded to Qatari levels of opulence by harnessing the tidal power of the Severn and imposing a swingeing tax on all 'foreign' vehicles passing through on the A40.

For those like me who are half-Welsh and half-English, Monmouthshire is the perfect place to prevaricate over ancestral loyalties and the politics of the Welsh language, but rest assured, Messrs Bradley and Thomas, 1972 was not the end of the story.

Matthew Hall

(Monmouth)