Letter: Selling England by the pound

Letter: Brown's proposed sale of Government assets expressly targets England's assets; Scotland's will hardly be affected.

The devolution legislation, which Brown more than anyone else, engineered for Scotland in 1998 makes sure of that.

The school playing fields and libraries of his Scottish constituency of Kirkcaldy are untouchable. But every single one in every single English constituency is now under threat and up for grabs by any rich punter from anywhere in the world.

Whatever the economic worth of Gordon Brown's proposed sale of Government assets, which Vince Cable has derisively called a "Government car boot sale" there is another aspect to it. It is very exploitative of England. All the major assets so far listed are either totally or predominately in England: the Dartford Crossing, the cross-Channel rail link, the nationalised bookmaker the Tote, the Government's 33 per cent stake in Urenco and the invaluable real estate around St. Pancras and Kings Cross Stations.

But there are aspects of this fire sale of our English assets which in their way are even more pernicious and harmful.

In the last resort English local councils, even county councils, are subject to Whitehall dictat in everything.

This is why Brown made his announcement without consulting the Local Government Association in England.

That is why every asset of all English local authorities could now be sold off over both the heads of local councillors and the electorate.

It is vital that we have an English Parliament to address this imbalance.

B Lawson

Ludlow