I WAS one of a group of would-be passengers who stood about on Shrub Hill Station recently, wondering when the next scheduled train would actually arrive because of safety delays; but at least it gave us time to discuss how our railways had got into this mess!

Most people there seemed to blame the last Conservative government for having privatised the train operators, splitting them off from the group that maintained the infrastructure. As with so much of recent legislation, they seemed genuinely surprised when I pointed out that it was actually a diktat of the European Union that forced this set-up on us. In order to bring UK into compliance with EC directive 91/440, ownership of the track and signalling had to be separated from ownership of the rolling stock. The Conservatives, fearing that this would not be well received by the British electorate, dressed it up as another of their privatisation initiatives.

There are numerous examples of how our daily lives are increasingly being influenced by the creeping spread of Brussels' bureaucracy. This has only been possible because the present and the previous Government will not debate these matters openly and honestly with us.

We all realise the desperate straits our farmers are in; and people frequently question why our Government is not doing more to help the industry. Others even comment that New Labour seems to be going out of its way to alienate rural people. However, this misses the point: our Government has little or no power to influence agricultural policy any more. They cannot help our farmers, even if they wish to.

Agriculture is just one of the many areas where control has been handed over to the EU by a British Government. Unelected Eurocrats in Brussels now decide on farming policy, which is rubber stamped by the so-called European Parliament. It is then passed down to individual national governments, who are obliged to implement these laws. In our case, MAFF now simple exists to enforce EU law.

Our fisheries, farming, court rulings and even our very citizenship have all been handed over, without any consultation.

We could do something to stop this erosion of our rights if we wished to. Alternatively, we can just grumble about it after it's too late: like passengers, standing on a draughty platform, waiting for a train to turn up.

R G SPENCER, Court Road, Malvern.