Sir, - I have a letter from Sir Bernard Shaw, Chairman of the Automobile Association, England, urging me to sell my vote to a British gas company named Centrica for £240. His very expensive brochure is full of financial figures and "information" designed to smother what my common sense tells me.
If this sell-out happens, then Irish members can say goodbye to the excellent roadside service they have received down through the years from the Irish branch of the AA. The key words to alert Irish members are "mainland Great Britain" - a term which is used more than once in the brochure. Behind this ominous phrase lies the colonial branch-office mentality which will see the Irish operation gradually fade from the face of the earth.
I'm voting no. I'll take the money if I have to, but it will quickly disappear in increased membership fees and diminishing services, all to keep the gas company shareholders happy. - Yours, etc.,
Kevin Healy, Hampstead Avenue, Dublin 9.