Re: Iver Parish Poll - European Single Currency

IT is possible to view the recent Iver Parish Meeting on the European Single Currency in a rather different light to that presented by Mr Gerry Hanson (Letters, September 8).

Re: Iver Parish Poll - European Single Currency

IT is possible to view the recent Iver Parish Meeting on the European Single Currency in a rather different light to that presented by Mr Gerry Hanson (Letters, September 8).

Certainly it was conducted with exemplary fairness, in that anyone with a view to express was allowed to express it.

I heard a great deal, for instance, about the iniquities - real or imagined - of our European partners and the dreaded euro, but very little about why Iver Parish Council should be required to spend English money on a poll which has little to do with parish affairs and everything to do with promoting a politically-motivated campaign at national level (for those who do not know, there exists a 'hit list' - the organisers' words, not mine - of around 90 towns and parishes nationwide where similar polls are being demanded).

The freedoms given to local electors on which Mr Hanson relies may well predate Magna Carta, but we can be sure that Parliament did not incorporate them in the 1972 Local Government Act in order that people could use them in the pursuit of national political aims.

Mr Hanson and those who think like him should beware. Freedoms abused can become freedoms lost.

M A Timms

The Ridings

Iver