THE RECENT Silk Report into the Welsh Assembly and its finding, i.e. that it needed to be expanded, more AMs recruited and more powers given to them, came as a shock. How could anyone describe the Assembly as nothing more than a very, very expensive failure?

It came as no surprise to me when I began to browse the Silk Commission’s website and found out the members that made up the board, with a few exceptions, were mostly career politicians and the usual public sector junta, and that Paul Silk himself was a former clerk and presiding officer for the Assembly.

My second surprise was the cost — one million pounds of taxpayers’ money constructing the thing. All this to tell us that the turkeys won’t be voting for Christmas.

Chris Bradley Caerleon Road Newport