THE reason the Welsh are able to spend, spend, spend on their roads and anything else they feel like, Mr Belk, (Gazette July 31), is due to the Barnett Formula, introduced in the late 1970s for an intended temporary period to balance Government spending with actual needs in Scotland and Wales with England.

Due to successive Government cowardice it's still in existence with Government spending per person in Scotland 24 per cent higher than England and 17 per cent higher in Wales than in England.

We, the English people, really require a new formula to give us parity with the Scots and Welsh and to do away with the Barnett formula.

We could even call it the Johnny Prescott Formula and get him to renounce his suggestion that there's no such thing as the English.

S J EELS

Castle Combe

Chippenham