Here we go again, another notch on our way to a parlia-mentary dictatorship!

May I explain to those tidy-minded people before they agree with what is now proposed?

By our rulers for the convenience of our rulers ("All the better to rule you by") said the fox to Little Red Riding Hood), is quite simply to have all the advantages of being in Parliament with all the advantages of not being in Parliament.

They want to become an upper tier of civil servants no less, full time Members of Parliament with no outside experience, and nine to five with a four day week!

We had the best civil service in the world by far until the politicians knobbled them, and they fell for it.

Thank goodness we still have a few MPs who have done something outside of the political scene and can bring that experience to Parliament, but there are fewer and fewer who have the passion of the politician of the past, as more and more take on the qualities of well paid and well behaved sheep!

Thank goodness for the Gwyneth Dunwoodys, the Tam Dalyells, and the Diane Abbotts, who know the passion of politics and behave as dedicated politicians.

Of course there are others too, but they are getting fewer!

The power is being centralised, concentrated, more and more into the cosy coterie of Number 10, and it is those who do not understand the protective role that our MPs are there to give us who are falling for these moves to take the powers of delay and obstruction, that can make the all-powerful government think again, away from the backbenchers .

It makes you think, doesn't it?

Leslie Loader

Mildenhall

Marlborough