The counties
Sir: If Christopher Booker will lead a campaign to restore the old counties he will become a public hero, and nowhere more than in what used to be Westmorland, once a well-administered and quietly prosperous county, now completely obliterated after an existence of over 100 years. Other small counties, such as Huntingdon and Rutland, were at least allowed to retain some sort of administrative identity as 'non metropolitan districts'. Not so Westmorland. At the district level, the greater part of the old county has been brigaded with a bit of Yorkshire and a bit of Lancashire into a bureaucratic fiction which has been given the silly and inaccurate name of 'South Lakeland', and which ignores all history, geography, lines of communication, and everything else which might in time enable a newly-created district to become a workable unit. Nothing could more clearly demonstrate the superficiality and crass stupidity of those who took it upon themselves to re-draw the map of England. At the county level, we form part of another and bigger monstrosity called 'Cumbria', where our rulers, 50 miles away over the mountains in Carlisle, are just about as remote and inaccessible as if they were in London. It almost goes without saying that our services have worsened in every way, while our rates have rocketed. For us, as evidently for the rest of England, Mr Peter Walker's reorganisation has been an unqualified disaster. Nevertheless, r fear that Mr Booker will find powerful forces lined up against him. He will be opposed by (a) the political parties, which have got a firmer grip on the new system than ever they had on the old, (b) the local government bureaucracy, Which has prospered exceedingly, (c) the bosses of the local government trade unions, whose power has increased correspondingly, and (d) the Whitehall bureaucracy, which is bound to defend its handiwork. And nowadays when forces such as these are in alliance, the national interest and the popular will do not count for much. But by all means let us try. G. D. Caldwell Low Ludderburn, Cartmel Fell, Windermere, Westmorland Sir: The other day, at Lord's my young son asked me where Middlesex was. Is it too late to revive this lost county, to restore the historic boundaries of Essex, Kent and Surrey and, in so doing, rid ourselves for ever of the monstrous GLC? John Young 37 Dewhurst Road, London W14
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