WITH St George's Day due next Thursday and the General Election campaign well underway, the 'English Question' remains largely ignored by the majority of the main political Party's standing, who are choosing to concentrate instead on 'what Scotland wants?'

The people of Bolton, England, are treated as second class citizens to those in Wales, N.Ireland and Scotland — with no English only Parliament or Assembly to represent their views and thanks to Labour's Barnett Formula they have over the last decade and more had much less public expenditure per head than the rest, despite having suffered the worst consequences of the rapid growth in immigration on its public services/NHS.

For desperate electoral reasons in Scotland, Labour are now promising to raise taxes further just on the English, to fund a further increase in public expenditure across the border. So where does this leave the English voters of Bolton?

Of the party candidates standing on May 7 who actually have a chance of being elected in Bolton, only the Conservatives have moved towards giving England a say in its law making with Labour strongly opposing any kind of English democratic accountability — amazingly saying the Scots wouldn't like it.

The 'English Question' will only be answered if we in Bolton on May 7 only vote for those candidates we feel are listening to our concerns, otherwise we deserve to continue being treated as 'second class citizens?'

Derek Bullock,

Leigh Rd

Westhoughton