R Spratt of the Wessex (Our Home) Party (Letters, January 16) isn't aware that Wessex didn't exist in 1065 as it was absorbed into a single, united Kingdom of England in 927 when King Athelstan of Wessex declared himself King of England and therefore had no borders in 1065.
Even restoring those 927 borders would be impractical as they'd leave all of modern Oxfordshire and Gloucestershire north of the Thames outside of Wessex, thus splitting those counties in two.
I'm not sure whether people living in Hampshire want to be part of the Province of Southampton (what area does that cover?). I know that people living in Somerset do not want to be a part of a similar Bristol-controlled and named region. Abolishing the ancient and much-loved counties would me very unpopular. Wouldn't fewer local councillors and more Members of Wessex Parliament mean more centralisation and less democracy?
E WOODS, Langport, Somerset.
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