THE letter from Tony Hooke UKIP last week outlined a number of ambitious promises for the Test Valley elections next year.

I like ambition, but recently published figures prove that his sweeping statement, promising to cut councillors’ allowances by 50 per cent has not been met at county level: a promise he made last year. In fact they have shot up by 30 per cent!

I am also sure I’m not alone in wondering why a political party with only two policies, one to leave the EU and the other to stop immigration can claim these payments.

So there you have it, a new political party that claims to be different when it demonstrably isn’t.

As the French say: Plus ça change – plus c’est la même chose. Simply translated to – The more that changes, the more it’s the same thing.

David Drew Andover