Martin Salter MP says that to change the name to Reading-on–Thames would be a waste of time and money. Did he oppose the Governments decision to change the name of their departments? What was the Depatment of the Environment, after Labour came to power became merged with transport to form the Department for Transport, Environment and the Regions or DETR. Then it became the Department for Transport, Local Government and the Regions. In nine years we have seen the DoE change to DETR, to DTLR, to ODPM, to DCLG. Has anyone toted up how much all this departmental tinkering has cost? Spending on new stationery, websites and signage must be huge.

Also wasted is the £76 to £100 billion on Trident that will help to escalate nuclear weapons proliferation with no enemy to point them at. And the budget for the Olympics is out of control, rising from £2.4 to £9.3 billion. Would you employ them to build anything after this and the dome? So stealth taxes continue to rise, and the government haven’t invested 1% of GDP in tackling climate change now rather than face disaster later as recommended in the recent Stern report.

On the subject of Mr Salters voting record, www.theyworkforyou.com say he was ‘Moderately against the Iraq war’ and ‘Very strongly against investigating the Iraq war’. So, he was only mildly opposed to the Government leading us into disaster in Iraq, but fully against allowing the public to know the full extend of what the Government had done.
Adrian Windisch
www.readinggreenparty.org.uk
18 Kent Road Reading, RG30 2EJ
0118 9567190
07802 671606