ON May 6 we will have a Labour, Conservative or, less likely, a Liberal Democrat government.

It does not matter which one gets in, the real government, making most of our laws, will still be in power - but it will be in Brussels.

So many of our powers have been signed away by successive governments that we can now make only 30 per cent of our own laws.

We have lost control of our agriculture, fishing grounds, trade and borders and help could not even be given to stricken MG Rover because of EU rules on state aid.

We pay £30 million every day for the privilege of membership. That money would build a fully-equipped hospital every week.

The longer we stay in the more it will cost us in taxes, with pressure being brought to bear for increased contributions to the EU budget and the abolition of our rebate.

If the EU Constitution is ratified we will give away almost all of our remaining powers and become a province of a European state.

A vote for any of the main parties on May 5 will mean continued control of our country by this corrupt, wasteful, and undemocratic regime.

Only a vote for the UK Independence Party will start to give us back control of our country and have the MPs we elect, and pay for, making all our laws for the benefit of the British people.

Nick Skaife,

UK Independence Party,

Whitfield Avenue,

Pickering.

Issue to vote on

I HOPE General Election candidates will pay attention to issues affecting disabled people in this constituency and do something positive to address these issues.

A recent survey conducted for disability charity Leonard Cheshire found disabled people are significantly more likely to use their vote than the wider population.

The survey also found disabled people were prepared to change their vote if their party didn't adequately address disability issues.

The message to all the candidates and parties in York is clear: issues such as access to public transport and social care services matter to the disabled and the average constituency contains several thousand disabled voters.

D J Grainger,

Burns Court,

Acomb Park,

York.

No work, no food

I HAVE just received the Lib-Dem pre-election publication. If they achieve support because of their allergy to ID cards, then many people must have a lot to hide. I would add to this compulsory DNA tests, but then I have no reason to object.

As for using this money for extra police and support officers - these would become unnecessary if crime was reduced because there was a genuine fear of the consequences.

The punishments meted out are, at times, truly pathetic.

Jailed criminals should be made to work to pay for their board and lodgings. No doubt someone out there could devise a way manual labour could be used to create electricity by movement of arms and legs on some simple mechanism, and help the National Grid - keeping them fit at the same time!

No work, no food. Or am I too primitive?

Gordon Ross,

Huntington Road,

York.

Updated: 10:11 Monday, May 02, 2005