SIR - Jack Kinsman of Grimsby, (Letters, December 31), is quite right when he implies that Tony Blair waits to be told when to jump and how high.

However, it is not Jacques Chirac who gives Tony his jumping instructions - it is George Bush. The President of the United States of America took the UK into an unwinnable war in Iraq, not the President of France. If certain people in Britain, such as this correspondent, could force themselves, somehow, to take a more kindly attitude to the European Union, our leaders might be in a position to free this country of American hegemony.

D E MARGRETT,

Worcester.