SIR – David Cameron is now trying the same miserable stunt of offering ‘regional government’ to buy off the English as Alex Salmond did when he sought to convince the Scots that independence would lift ‘the dead hand of the London bureaucracy’. They were not deceived however because there is already a unresponsive bureaucracy in Edinburgh as the following example demonstrates.

My wife is a McLennan whose ancestors fought with Bonnie Prince Charlie while mine were with the Buffs under the Duke of Cumberland. We were both seriously concerned to read that plans had been approved for the building of houses on Culloden moor adjacent to the clan graves. With many others, I asked Alex Salmond to use his influence to prevent the desecration of one of Scotland’s most sacred sites. In reply his private office said only that because planning regulations had been properly applied, ‘the First Minister was unable to intervene’.

If Bingley folk are minded to vote for a Yorkshire parliament in the expectation of a more sympathetic response to the hated Sty Lane development, I fear they would be disappointed because although the final decision might be made in Leeds rather than London the same planning rules would apply.

Brian Holmans, Langley Road, Bingley