MANY people still seem to be confused about who is their Member of the European Parliament.

In June last year electors in the North West gave more votes to the Conservative Party than to Labour and since then the North West, and every part of it, has had five Conservative members of the European parliament, four Labour MEPs and one Liberal Democrat.

For the five years before then there had been ten Labour MEPs in the region, each with a constituency of some eight Westminster seats -- but there were none from the other parties.

This meant that they were able to forge strong links with local authorities, businesses and the media.

Under the Blair regional systems, each MEP has to be personally accountable to each of the six million electors in the North West -- not an easy task! The most important issue in Europe is still to be decided. Should the United Kingdom sign up to the single currency, or should we stay out of the Eurozone of eleven countries?

I have no doubt that Britain can and should keep the pound and not give up decision-making on our interest rates and businesses and personal taxation.

It is completely unacceptable for the un-elected heads of European Central Bank to make these decisions. If they go wrong our electors will have no redress.

That is why sensible people of this great country of ours reject the Euro by a majority of 70 per cent to 30 per cent. They know that if Britain had signed up to the Euro in January 1999 we would all have been more than 20 per cent worse off by now.

Den Dover, Conservative MEP for the North West,

30 Countess Way,

Euxton,

Chorley PR7 6PT.