Conspiracy goes right to the core

SIR – Dr John Butcher wrote on withdrawing from the EU in the Herts Advertiser of January 6.

We need to eradicate the EU disciples from our present and previous governments before doing so.

The conspirators have long been in office, spreading like mycelium throughout every civil service department. The NHS, the police, schools, town hall and civic centre have the smell of it, just as those uncollected bins around our streets.

On top of this William Hague, the Foreign Secretary, writes in a Sunday paper: “I would have dearly loved to hold a referendum on that treaty after a change of government: sadly the ratification of Lisbon by all 27 EU states last autumn made that impossible.

“But I have always been determined that this flagrant denial of democratic choice to the people of Britain would never happen again.”

Democratic choice? When was that? I must have blinked.

We have been denied all along, and it has been intended so since before Edward Heath! Voting must not interfere with ‘the plan’.

To cap it all, this diktat has no ‘comment’ facility.

The ‘Mekon’ has spoken – you will listen only.

Who listens any more to their constituents? Not our own Mrs Main – isn’t that right Mrs Main? Five letters written since February of last year. No reply for any.

This is government today – they wish nothing to do with the people, but take their money and spend how they wish.

We are spied on every step we take, told what rubbish goes where, and charged for the ‘privilege’.

The entire system is rotten to the core. Remove the lot.

Is it any wonder they ride in bullet proof cars, and hide behind gated streets and gun-toting police?

I sense a Ceausescu moment approaching. Who will they blame for that? You and I.

DEREK REYNOLDS

Woodland Drive, St Albans

SIR – Your correspondent Dr John Butcher (Herts Advertiser, January 6) is right concerning compliance with EU dictates, but unfortunately all the blame is not with Labour as he implies.

All parties in Westminster are committed to the EU; it was the Tories under Edward Heath that originally took us into what was then the EEC, Labour gave us a referendum on staying in the EEC, and all parties gave assurance that no loss of sovereignty was involved, it was purely a common market.

Only a minority of honourable members warned us that it would be a path to a European State – Tony Benn and Enoch Powell being two notable ones from opposite sides of the political spectrum.

Today another EU Bill is being debated, on which, we are assured, a referendum will be held if further sovereignty is to be ceded. Bill Cash has warned that there are loopholes and weasel-words in this bill, but no doubt it will be ‘whipped’ through. We cannot trust any Party in this matter, any more than we can trust individual members to be honest with their expenses claims.

Stand back and think for a moment: we pay 45 million pounds a day to an organisation that for ten years couldn’t get its own auditors to pass the books, that had all the commissioners sacked for corruption, that has two Headquarters between which all the personnel and furniture are transferred monthly at great expense – come on now, who in their right mind would put their savings into an organisation like that?

We recently saw David Cameron returning from Munich – sorry, from Brussels – waving “2.9 per cent” like Chamberlain with his note signed by Hitler, a 2.9 per cent increase in our donation to that corrupt organisation when he went there declaring there would be no increase at all.

Perhaps the Daily Telegraph should do an investigation into the expenses of all those Eurocrats, it would make the recent revelations regarding Westminster look like peanuts!

Unfortunately, Dr Butcher, the general population is more concerned with reality television than with the reality of our self-serving political class.

BARRY HAVES

Southfield Way, St Albans

Invest in trees, not sculptures

SIR – The trouble with “Leaf Field” – it means composted rubbish – is that it is rooted in the times and politicking that caused it to be commissioned in the first place.

Some vandal lit a fire under it once, but the real disgrace was the substantial cost to us council taxpayers, and the hubris of the commissioning council.

A statue of Sam Ryder has been proposed for a different reason, but that too is questionable, both as to where to put it, whom to commission to sculpt it, in what material, and what it will be called.

The fibreglass “Roman flasher” opposite Westminster Lodge is a warning.

What we need is a proper “jet d’eau” between the two island bird sanctuaries – a fake one is squirted by a lone firefighter to mark the annual summer pilgrimage to Alban’s shrine.

Transfer the money to that project from what we spend on the pathetic pond-spouts at the west end of the Arena, they too are hidden by the shrubbery where “Leaf Field” lay hidden for decades.

Kate Bretherton has highlighted the treasures we have in Verulamium Park in her book on local trees. Invest in that great arboretum.

Don’t throw good money after bad and move pass� bygones.

And we need new signage by the park loos, which are right by the Belgic flint-trading route, from Prae Wood, by way of the Causeway, across the then marsh, and up Abbey Mill Lane to Europe.

The standard of all such signs needs to rival the Royal Parks in London, let alone the brilliant signage in King’s Park, Perth, Western Australia.

MICHAEL JAMESON

Marlborough Gate, St Albans

Collection thanks

SIR – I am writing on behalf of the Harpenden Committee of The Children’s Society.

We would like to thank all those who contributed to the collection for the charity on December 18 in The Maltings, St Albans.

Thanks also to St Albans Chamber Choir who sang carols whilst the collection was being taken. �159.83 was raised.

CLAIRE ROBINSON

The Children’s Society

Leycroft Way, Harpenden