WE HEAR of many ways that working men and women have to bear the brunt of government savings by cutting manpower and bureaucracy. The working populace do not mind helping out to balance our financial books, but this seems not to apply to our elected local councils, national government and the EU government as they give themselves a busting cost-of-living wage rise. What should we be doing to cut cost, manpower, administration and bureaucracy? Cut the number of MPs at Westminster from 650 to 450, local councils like Newport cut the number of councillors down to 20 from 55, cut out any twinning with other cities abroad as they are just for people to fly off and have a binge at the council’s expense, keep all Assembly Members’ and politicians’ pay rises to the level of the average working man, end council funding for International Women’s Day, Black History Month and the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender History Month. Politicians have got completely out of touch with what people want. Any savings made should be passed on to the everyday issues of living. Last, but not least, save a fortune from our involvement with Brussels, get back to where we were a few years ago with the Common Market when all we had was a Common Trading Policy and a Common Defence Policy. At the present moment in time, we have so many levels of bureaucracy (costing a fortune) that it’s difficult to know who’s actually in charge of running our country! Puppets on a Brussels string comes to mind!
 
Norman Plaisted,
Vivian Road,
Newport