L SPITERI accuses me of incoherence (You Say, March 5) for stating that British influence in the wider world is far greater than British influence either within the continent of Europe or the political alignment that is the EU.
I speak only from experience. I have travelled extensively within Eastern and Western Europe and quite a bit further, too.
While visiting the USA, South Africa, Australia and the West Indies, I have seen British influence all over the place, not just language but historical links that have created bonds between our countries that endure until today, an "Anglosphere" as it has been called.
Europe, however, is a different matter. The EU consists of 15 ancient countries each with different economies, languages, cultures and ambitions. The attempt by the political masters of the EU to create a single Nation State from this vast collection of diverse countries is political ambition gone mad.
France and Germany's attempts to drive a wedge between Europe and the USA is a dangerous game that will benefit nobody on either side of the Atlantic.
Peace has been maintained in Europe over the last 58 years (the Balkans excepted) not because of the EU but because of the UN, Nato, and to a large extent, the USA.
I maintain that we do not need to surrender our independence, our sovereignty, our currency or anything else for that matter to unelected beaurocrats in Brussels in order to become part of a Franco-German dominated European Nation State.
We must, of course remain part of the free trading block within Europe, but the ambitions of France, Germany and others goes far beyond this original concept of the "Common Market".
It's interesting to note that 49 per cent of voters in France said "no" to joining the euro. The Germans didn't even get an opportunity to vote. It's not just the British public that is eurosceptic.
The UK does still have worldwide influence - we are, after all one of only five permanent members of the UN security council (something the EU wants to put an end to), and I just don't see any good reason - economic, defensive, moral or other - to forfeit this worldwide status.
GARY WEBB,
Worcester.
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