There are some government proposals that are so ludicrous, not to say barking mad, that make one feel that this is Wonderland, not England and we are all 'Alices' who have fallen down a rabbit hole.

To think that Mark Harper, as the Minister for Constitutional Reform in charge of overseeing the Boundary Commission's constituency boundary proposals, even considered the idea of joining the heart of Gloucester city with the Forest of Dean, is to make one question his sanity.

Where has he been living in recent years? Surely he knows that the River Severn divides the two areas and forms a natural, historic barrier. From the Gloucester point of view, to divide the city from its Shire Hall, cathedral and docks appears deliberately perverse. Foresters will be wary that scarce resources, ostensibly labelled 'Forest of Dean' will be deliberately moved to the north of the constituency and that the Dean will remain the traditional 'poor cousin'.

If ever there is an area of England that can claim to have a unique identity it is the land between the rivers Severn and Wye and I write as someone born in another part of Gloucestershire. Even as a child I understood that the 'Foresters' are different and proud of it. I see from reports that Gloucester residents are just as appalled as the Foresters at the thought of being joined in one constituency. Imagine it, they might actually have to mingle, even if only politically, with people from Cinderford and Coleford. The horror!

To be serious, this is a step too far that has no basis in history at all. The Dean is a very precise and confined area, bounded on three sides by water. With a judicious barrier to the north it could be an island and there are some on both sides of the proposed constituency boundary who would be quite happy to see this happen. Within the constituency wards there are other ludicrous partnerships that are proposed. Steam Mills and English Bicknor? There was outcry at a recent Forest of Dean District Council meeting when this was revealed, but a lot more than rhetoric will be required if these suggestions are to be overturned.

Forest of Dean District Council has already withdrawn from partnership with the Cotswolds in tourism promotion because of the dominance of the Cotswolds and is considering joint advertising with the Wye Valley which would seem to be a more natural conjunction. Why then, is national government proposing an unnatural partnership with Gloucester city for the parliamentary constituency?

If Mark Harper has any concern for his future career as the Member of Parliament for the Forest of Dean he will strangle these proposals at birth and bury them deep as the nonsensical ideas they are.

– Dr Daphne Pearson, Tinman's Green, Redbrook.