Sir: May I take Jo Grimond at his word and
respond to his article (27 June)? I think he raises the critical question, i.e. whether `to strike out for a new highly decentralised political economy with drastic changes . . . a total alternative to state socialism.' The sad fact is that while the Social Democrats and Ecology Party acknowledge the case for regionalism, they both in practice put overwhelming emphasis on seeking power through Westminster. Their critical constitutional reform is always the same — proportional representation.
What might 'a total alternative' look like? There is no reforming Big Brother. With the nation-state moribund, we need a new party that will think internationally and act locally. The raison d'être of the nation-state is essentially military and we shall never get out of our present political grooves until we make the imaginative leap of conceiving of a demilitarised Europe from the Atlantic to the Urals. Only in that context is it possible to think realistically about a form of sovereign regionalism that will be the means of restoring a sense of personal and political responsibility throughout the country. Sovereign regionalism means that the regions will levy, collect and spend their own taxes.
When welbeginto think of the redundancy of No 10 and the invention of as many prime ministerial offices as there are regions then, indeed, we shall be into genuinely alternative political thinking.
Peter Cadogan 1 Hampstead Hill Gardens, London NW3
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