I SEE Councillor Stephen Clee has further confirmed that our county council, and the shire counties of England, are under threat of extinction as the regions of England become aligned with the European Union.

But what a shame Mr Clee has to trot out that misconceived and erroneous Tory party slogan of being "in Europe, but not run by Europe". We are and always have been in Europe, geographically speaking, so I assume he means "in the EU, not run by the EU".

But what a nonsense. Britain has been in the EU (or in the common market, as Tory PM Edward Heath cynically called it - later admitting on TV that he knew all along he was signing up to a federal Europe) for 27 years and we are now run by the EU.

More than 70 per cent of all new laws in this country are based on EU directives; the fact that we are now forced to buy home-grown produce in kilos and not in pounds and ounces, against the wishes of the majority of the British public, is just one example of how EU law now over-rides British law - and it will get worse, much worse, as long as we remain in the EU.

Mr Clee will know only too well that our sprinkling of MEPs has a very weak voice in the EU parliament, but that hardly matters when new laws are conceived behind closed doors by EU commissioners who have the right to over-ride the parliament anyway.

And if that wasn't enough there is the EU's firm principle of "acquis communautaire", which means that none of our rights and freedoms that have already been given away can be got back under any circumstances as long as we remain a member of the EU.

I joined UKIP because it was and still is the only party that believes Britain should leave the EU; the only party prepared to fight for getting back our rights and freedoms that have already been given away by successive Tory and Labour governments.

IAN MORRIS,

UK Independence Party,

Malvern.