'A SNAPSHOT of Britain today.'

A foreign flag -- a ring of yellow on a blue background -- flying from most town halls and not a Union Jack in sight; my driving licence emblazoned with that foreign flag; my passport, an unfamiliar and unwelcome red colour, instead of the imposing blue; greedy supermarket chains stealthily reducing the size of a can of beans, which they get away with because the weight is shown only in grammes, which I cannot relate to; the weather forecast on television giving temperatures only in degrees Celsius.

These are all changes resulting from our membership of the European Union. They are not changes I voted for. I was never, ever asked -- nor was anyone else in this country.

In this supposed democracy, I never saw in any political party's manifests that we should join a 'community' which would change the very face of our nation, its symbols, its landmarks, all the outward signs that we live in England and not in some foreign country.

Parliament has become virtually irrelevant. The majority of our laws are now made in Brussels, by committees of bureaucrats, rubber-stamped by ministers and put into action without MPs ever being given the chance to vote on them. It stinks!

There is no way I shall be voting in next year's Euro-election.

D BULLEN (Mr), Albany Road, Blackburn.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.