Last week's High Court ruling that Britain illegally detained four asylum seekers by breaking our own Human Rights Act is seriously worrying, particularly with the much-vaunted referendum for an elected supremo for our city due in October.

The potential cost for this latest Home Office mess promises to be upwards of £110,000,000 in compensation to detained asylum seekers and we, the British taxpayers, stand to foot this bill.

If this is not enough, what is even more seriously concerning is that the Government's main local proponent for an elected mayor here is none other than Lord Bassam, the self-styled spokesman for Brighton and Hove and former Government minister in the Home Office when the asylum seeker mess first occurred.

But fanciful, high-flown schemes that prove to be expensive white elephants are not new to this Government. Remember the Dome and what it cost each tax-payer? The elected mayor for Brighton and Hove promises to be yet another such farrago, only this time the city's council taxpayers stand to be the victims when this hair-brained pipe dream goes sour. You and I will pick up the tab, not the Chancellor.

So may I, please, ask Lord Bassam to explain how on earth the Home Office managed to get the latest asylum issue so wrong and, secondly, who will foot the bill if, as seems likely, an elected mayor in Brighton and Hove proves to be yet another dismal leap in the dark that fails miserably.

-Keith Jago, Uplands Road, Brighton