THE idea, playfully mooted this week by Lord Hanningfield, that Essex should declare independance from Westminster is not entirely without merit.

As he points out, the county has a bigger economy than Cuba and Croatia.

Bearing in mind one is a communist state labouring under a United States embargo with a record of human rights abuses and two million people having fled the country, and the other is still recovering from a bloody civil war, these might not be the examples to choose.

However, it would be nice to be free from the shackles of Whitehall where a new inquiry or project is launched every week but nothing seems to get done or any lessons learned.

In fact, the possibilities are almost endless.

In Tendring, we could establish Harwich as our naval base, seize a ferry, strap some guns to it and patrol our coastline from invaders and Johnny-foreigner fishermen stealing our cod.

We could get rid of VAT and flog fags and booze to the rest of the country rather than have people go over to France, we would naturally withdraw from the EU and flout their laws, just for the sheer fun of it.

In Jaywick, rather than employ endless faceless bureaucrats to drive there in their BMW's to wring their hands over how to improve their area - while maximising their consultancy fees - we could give Jaywick to its residents, much like the Americans returned large tracts of lands to Native American Indians, and they could build a super casino there.

With our lax tax laws we could become a home from home to Russian billionaires, build a top notch marina and turn Walton into Monaco.

Frinton's Connaught Avenue, once known as the Bond Street of Essex, could attract real Bond Street stores once again, Clacton Airport could be expanded, and, within, just a few years we would all be completely flush with cash and then start helping others less fortunate than ourselves, for example people from Sussex.

Of course, one slight problem is that if we did go independant, we would presumably be run by the hordes of highly-paid bureaucrats and consultants from Essex County Council.

Errr, you are right, best scrap the idea then.