It will have a key role holding public bodies to account, helping to ensure they do the best possible job for people in the region. For the first time, regional policy will be the business of our national Parliament.

In particular, this Committee will be a significant boost to efforts to transform the region's most deprived areas and build thriving local economies.

Under new strengthened arrangements councils will work more closely with the Regional Development Agency, business and other local organisations to develop and agree plans for future housing, skills, transport and regeneration in their region.

The Select Committee will scrutinise these plans, making sure they really meet the needs of the area. This is good news for Yorkshire and Humber, as it will help ensure that, through having the right housing and transport links and the skilled workforce the region needs, it is well placed to deal with current economic pressures and to see stronger growth in the future.

From: Richard Corbett, Labour Member of the European Parliament for Yorkshire and Humber.

MAY I introduce some unusual cross-party agreement by agreeing with Timothy Kirkhope (Yorkshire Post, July 18) that a Regional Select
Committee for Yorkshire and Humber would give the region a greater voice in its dealings with Westminster and it could also include the regions MEPs as the only politicians directly elected by the region as a whole.

Yorkshire and Humber is affected by European as well as national legislation and a recipient of funding from both Brussels and Whitehall.

Regional select committees are, potentially, a great opportunity to create a forum to discuss the issues, be they at national or European level, that affect our region.


Should all PMs be given state funerals?


From: Peter J Brown, Connaught Road, Middlesbrough.

THERE is much controversy about the suggestion that there should be a state funeral for Margaret Thatcher. On a recent edition of Any Questions, a former Tory MP said that he did nor believe that she would want a state funeral.

If Margaret Thatcher were to be granted a state funeral, then it would only be right that any other former Prime Minister should
have a state funeral. The state funeral of Sir Winston Churchill in 1965 was very much in exceptional circumstances.

In 2005, two former Prime Ministers, James Callaghan and Edward Heath, passed away without much fuss. Those two former PMs may not have been great Prime Ministers. However, the deaths of these former leaders was symbolic , because they were the last two Prime Ministers who fought for this country in the Second World War.

If Margaret Thatcher is to be given a state funeral, then John Major, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown should be given one.

The greatness, or lack of it, of former Prime Ministers is a matter for historians.

From: M Swan, East Causeway Crescent, Leeds.

THERE have been letters as per D Birch's (Yorkshire Post, July 23) that attack Baroness Thatcher, the Conservatives generally and make life under Labour the best. I can't agree. I can't recollect reading or hearing about multiple, personal records regularly going missing. Baroness Thatcher didn't involve us in a Middle East war. She would also have ensured our troops are equipped properly. Snatch Land Rovers would have been left on Belfast docks.

As Gordon Brown has many women MPs, he has women ministers. We all know who they are. The result – the nanny state.

Some of their male counterparts are no better, ie Alan Johnson, Health Secretary, previously union leader.

And we all know about Alistair Darling – Mr Stealth Taxes.

The correspondents I referred to in my opening remarks want a Labour dictatorship. I don't! Quite the opposite.

From: H Marjorie Gill, Clarence Drive, Menston, Ilkley.

YOUR correspondent D Birch is quite right to attribute the troubles of British industry to Mrs Thatcher's government. Of course, it was she who insisted that miners left some of their tools behind so that shifts could not start until they were fetched.

The refusal of work sharing in the shipbuilding industry was entirely down to her insistence, as also was the refusal to handle container shipping in the ports of Liverpool, Tilbury and Portsmouth, thus making sure that the business went to Rotterdam.


London railway bid can benefit two communities


From: Alan Hyde, head of communications, National Express East Coast, York.

MALCOLM Lambert demonstrated a good understanding of the issues that the Office of Rail Regulation will consider over the next few months as it assesses the competing bids of companies wishing to run additional Yorkshire to London train services from December 2009 ("Rail operator must prove it can run services", Yorkshire Post, July 19),

Not least, as he says, is the limited available track capacity for new services on the busy East Coast Main Line.

However, anyone less familiar with the issues than Mr Lambert may think that the final decision will be limited to a straight choice between the Bradford versus Harrogate proposals – that one of
these important regional conurbations must necessarily lose out if the other is to benefit from more frequent services
to London.

This does not have to be the case. National Express East Coast is the only applicant that already runs Bradford and Harrogate services – albeit not with the frequency that we would like. We can serve both communities with a more frequent timetable by extending some of our Leeds services
to Bradford.

This optimises available capacity, as it avoids the need to take up additional space on the most congested part of the route (between Doncaster and Peterborough) and leaves enough space on the track also to operate our planned two-hourly Harrogate-London service.

We believe this is the best solution for rail users, the taxpayer and the economic development of the region – including both Harrogate
and Bradford.