Please remember the Clocks go back on sunday.

[mr rusty]

All the talk of more than one time zone in the UK is nonsense and it hardly portrays a "united" kindgom does it?

...nor does running 4 different international football teams but imagine the fuss if we went to one "united" kingdom squad! Think of all the other differences, Scottish banknotes, Welsh opening hours, free prescription charges and cheap university fees for some of the "United" kingdom, but not all, and as for Northern ireland, a whole different world.....the list could go on, hardly "United" at all! It's an artificial construct, bought about by good Queen Bess's lack of offspring and it's about time it was sorted out one way or the other, not the current fractured set up we have at the moment.

[Martin Evans]

...nor does running 4 different international football teams but imagine the fuss if we went to one "united" kingdom squad!

I have always said that come world cup time, we could do better. At different times, the likes of Best, Dalglish or Giggs could have added their talents to those in the England side. In rugby I suppose that's what the British Lions are and they too might do better, if they played together as a unit more often.

I'm sure the self styled Welsh Government like it the way it is, as there are those, who like to suggest that politics is simply an extension of the rugby field (During the rather one sided referendum, on extra powers for the Assembly, they got the WRU to promote the yes vote....who said using sport for properganda dispappeared with the Iron Curtain?). As to the remedy, I think it's time people forgot petty, tribal chips on the shoulder and lines on maps, otherwise we could end up going the way of Yugoslavia (Even though the circumstances maybe different). As someone once said of Nye Bevan "He believed, as I believe, that a miner is a miner, whether he works in Durham or Glamorgan, that a steel worker is a steel worker, whether he works at Ebbw Vale, Llanwern, Scunthorpe or Sheffield". Some may remark that nowhere in Scotland is included in that but I would suggest that there just as many real world ties, between Durham and Scotland, as there are between Durham and Devon.

[mr rusty]

As someone once said of Nye Bevan "He believed, as I believe, that a miner is a miner, whether he works in Durham or Glamorgan, that a steel worker is a steel worker, whether he works at Ebbw Vale, Llanwern, Scunthorpe or Sheffield".

....unfortunately this is no longer the case- the welsh miner can send his child to university for half the cost to the English miner, and should he drop his jackhammer on his foot his painkillers will be free, as opposed to his English counterpart, who will have to pay for them...now that is most definately not what Bevan had in mind for post-war Britain when he was setting up the NHS!

[Martin Evans]

I couldn't agree more.....though there aren't many miners sending their children anywhere any more Now one thing, I haven't benfitted from, is free prescriptions, as I haven't had a prescription since the system altered (I couldn't tell you when that was). The problem is that the Assembly are spending money given to them (I suppose you could say that of any government), rather than money they have had to raise themselves. I refer to them as "Pretending" to be a government (Hence the term "Welsh Government" has come into use) and the things you mention, will be popular and show them in a good light. I am not advocating inflexible, Soviet style control, as I realise that what works in Croydon may not work in Castletown. However, where appropriate, I feel powers should be devolved to local authorities and that we don't need more layers government, between local and central government. Croydon and Castletown maybe quite a long way from one another but I could say the same of Cardiff and Cardigan and there will be people in north Wales, who complain that everything revolves around Cardiff.

[Dave3066]

All the talk of more than one time zone in the UK is nonsense and it hardly portrays a "united" kindgom does it?

...nor does running 4 different international football teams but imagine the fuss if we went to one "united" kingdom squad! Think of all the other differences, Scottish banknotes, Welsh opening hours, free prescription charges and cheap university fees for some of the "United" kingdom, but not all, and as for Northern ireland, a whole different world.....the list could go on, hardly "United" at all! It's an artificial construct, bought about by good Queen Bess's lack of offspring and it's about time it was sorted out one way or the other, not the current fractured set up we have at the moment.

I agree. In for a penny in for a pound as they say. If we are "better together" as the campaign slogan says then let's do away with the nonsense of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland and become a truly United Kingdom. It would take some political b@lls to do but after 300 or so years, once all the history has been watered down and forgotten about, we'll all sit back and wonder what all the fuss was about. In fact, if we are "better together" let's just go the whole hog and become part of a united Europe....

Dave