It was with a degree of sadness and utter incredulity that I read Mr Margrett's letter of May 7 in which he intimated that the UK was in some way inferior to France and Germany.

I refer in particular to his comment concerning "France and Germany and other well administered EU states".

Is this the France and Germany that have higher rates of unemployment than the UK ?

Is this the France and Germany that suffer from strongly supported neo-nazis in their national elections?

What exactly, I wonder, does Mr Margrett think is so well administered about France and Germany ?

Perhaps he has visited these countries a couple of times and has got a bit carried away ?

Mr Margrett went on to state his demand that "we must move closer to our European neighbours" but unfortunately he fails to explain why we "must" do this.

What is wrong with moving closer to our global neighbours?

We live in a global economy in which we are the fourth richest country.

It's true that we will soon become the fifth richest country when China's economy becomes bigger than our own in the next couple of years, but the UK will certainly remain big enough and strong enough to "look after itself" without hiding behind the EU and paying them £30m day in the process.

Am I the only reader incidentally who regards Mr. Margrett's description of the UK as a "EU state" as insulting ?

The UK is not an EU state Mr Margrett it's a country, and your denigration of our status is an insult to our British ancestry.

Gary Webb

Worcester.