Sir, – Your correspondent Nigel Watson (D&S Times letters, Oct 17) is absolutely right that we should have major constitutional reform in England and not just in Scotland and to a lesser extent in Wales, but there are key issues that must be addressed.

One is the gradual destruction of the powers of councils in England, by stripping away functions like control of the police, housing via enforced sale of council houses and education by the creation of academies. Both Labour and Conservative governments have been guilty of this divide and rule, this erosion of the democratic base.

The different regions of England now lack the experience of large-scale decision making and more importantly the people of those regions have become apathetic and have ceased to believe that they can bring about real change on a regional basis.

If we are to have true regional government all those powers must be returned, along with the funding needed to administer them and, as Nigel Watson suggests, the people in those regions must become more involved in decisions that affect them.

On a political level there is a significant practical difficulty. Labour is unlikely to agree to a system where "English MPs decide on English issues" because that would be likely to result, given our "first past the post voting system", in an arrangement heavily weighted in favour of Conservative MPs.

One answer to that objection would be to establish a Parliamentary body for England which has a membership of MPs in proportion to the general election vote for each party to make decisions about how regional government should be organised. The Conservatives would, no doubt at first object to such an arrangement but if they really agree with the principle of devolution, as the Liberal Democrats do, they should be prepared to compromise.

JOHN HARRIS

Ronaldshay Drive, Richmond.