ABOUT 25 years ago my wife and I had season tickets to the Dell.

The seats were the benches under the east stand. We sat on a piece of carpet which we took to the game in a plastic bag.

For about five years at the start of the football season I had to replace the plastic bag, because it had disintegrated. They barely lasted a year, let alone 400 years.

When I moved home I put a lot of possessions in plastic bags. Those I left in the garden with their contents didn't last a year as they disintegrated. Those I put in a brick shed lasted two to three years, if that, before they fell to bits.

Those that I put in cupboards indoors lasted an extra couple of years before they disintegrated.

Can someone direct me to a museum where I can find a 400-year-old plastic bag?

I've been to Portsmouth dockyard and seen the Mary Rose and her artefacts - a 400-year-old lady of the seas - but there were no 400-year-old plastic bags there.

The bottom line is that with the smoking ban in effect the tax revenue is going down, hence the 11p hike on a pack of cigarettes to maintain the level of taxes.

A 5p plastic bag tax levied on the 12 to 13 billion plastic bags used every year is a nice little earner.

The truth is that the proposed tax on plastic bags has nothing to do with being eco-friendly or saving the planet.

It's a pure and simple tax grab from the soft touch British people - an out and out tax hike.

OWEN MILLER (by e-mail).