No real power

5:38pm Sunday 18th May 2008

It may have been noticed that the Prime Minister, at a recent Prime Minister's Question Time in the House of Commons, was wearing the revered Ukip purple coloured tie!

Maybe, just maybe, our present Prime Minister is for turning (unlike Maggie Thatcher) and is listening to the common sense values that Ukip is proposing in its 18 policy statements.

Nowadays, councils have no real power.

They have to do as they are told by the Government and, moreover, the EU. Only Ukip believes in true local independence: -Independence for local councils, schools, police, hospitals, social care and planning -Independence in local democracy, that is for local decision making -Independence from the costs and interference of the European Union.

Government ministers should and must realise that they are stewards and not owners of our nation.

We need to be free to do what we want, not be led like sheep to the slaughter!

JOHN MADEN Secretary, Oxford UK Independence Party Montagu Road Botley Oxford