MR Hathershaw (Letters, November 15) accuses me of things I did not say regarding the Manchester identity or the relation between region and city.

I did not say Manchester would have no identity without Lancashire - I said the two were inextricably linked in the national consciousness. This is hardly surprising: within living memory, the city acted as a shop front for a county that was the workshop of the world.

In the Central Library, the arms of Manchester and Lancashire stand together. There are still far more firms and organisations in Manchester and Salford with "Lancashire" in their title than there are with the unloved "Greater Manchester" - which virtually no one uses except Government quangos.

Both nationally and locally, "Lancashire" does not mean the truncated area of 1974, or the even more truncated one of 1998 (and for Mr Hathershaw's information, neither Blackburn nor Darwen is in the county council area either). It reflects the unifying identity of a much wider area.

That there need be no conflict between a regional hub city and a broader regional identity is amply demonstrated on the continent, and indeed over the Pennines. It used to be the case here - try and count the red roses in Manchester town hall.

We are a fringe-of-Europe region, but we have TWO great cities, and a large number of other local identities. We need something that unifies, rather than the divisiveness and resentment occasioned by the term "Greater Manchester".

Mr Hathershaw says he was born in Manchester, so it is hardly surprising that he, unlike us, should identify with his home city. We can in turn be proud that the charms of Bolton have clearly proved sufficient to persuade him to move. One meets on the net so many proud Mancunians - currently living elsewhere.

Incidentally - I actually live at a Manchester address and, like many, am a staunch Lancastrian!

Andrew Bowyer

Fallowfield Way

Atherton