TONY Leamon's letter (24/9/14) is difficult to follow. He seems to argue that a resounding rejection for breaking up the UK by nearly 2/3rds of the Scottish electorate (62 per cent No or DNV) in the recent referendum was somehow a success for the Yes campaign.

However there was a very dangerous democratic deficit here. We know 81 per cent of England, Wales and Northern Ireland want to keep the Union intact and yet we were disenfranchised; two million Scots could have broken it up against the wishes of the vast majority of the remaining 64m. 

Fortunately this crazy idea has now been kicked into the very long grass. Closer to home, we seem to have some ambitious people jumping on the Cornish Assembly bandwagon, trying to capitalise on the dying fever of the Scottish campaign. But we already have an assembly, it is the country's largest Unitary authority, Cornwall Council. 

Only a few years ago we went through the expensive and disruptive process of stripping out a middle layer of local governance, the district councils, in order to devolve power down to the town and parish councils. 

We are still in a shakedown period making this work, although recent successes in Falmouth and elsewhere with town councils acquiring assets and influence are growing in number. 

Yes, we should continue to improve and tweak this process, but tearing it up and starting all over again, throwing the baby out with the bathwater, cannot be a sane or sensible way forward. 

We should also remember that with power comes responsibility; the more functions we take from Westminster, the greater the requirement for us to fund their operation locally becomes, and do we really have that degree of wealth generation inside Cornwall? 

Providing health care, education, transport, road maintenance, social services, unemployment and housing benefits and a contribution to our share of national security does not come cheap. 

It was the failure of the SNP to put up a convincing case for the economics of nationalism that killed their campaign, and Scotland has a much stronger economy than Cornwall. The Balkanisation of countries has caused such misery and deprivation throughout history, look at the Middle East today. Please let's not go down this road.

Cllr Christopher Smith Dip Arch Hon FRIBA,
Ponsharden,
Falmouth