LIKE MEP Gary Titley, I too would very much welcome a real debate on the EU constitution as, to date, all my letters of concern about our self-evident loss of sovereignty and democratic self-determination have met with accusations of scaremongering and Tory euroscepticism.

Gary Titley describes as "laughable" the idea that countries which, 15 years ago were labouring under totalitarian dictatorship, would now happily join the EU were it the monster that we make it out to be. He points to the democracy now available in those countries.

Membership of the EU will leave them open to wholesale exploitation by multinationals as they now belong to this largest single market in the world. That one sentence gives the game away. It is all about business and the EU's desire to be bigger and more powerful at it than the USA.

More and more the EU is speaking for Britain where Britain should be speaking for herself, and more and more Britain has to go cap in hand for EU permission to do things. This from an unelected body whose directives and regulations overrule Westminster laws.

There seems to be confusion about a constitution and a treaty. Until now, the progress of the EEC, the EC and the EU has been by means of treaties agreed to, or not in the case of Denmark and Ireland, by member states. But with the acceptance of this treaty, national agreement will not be needed.

Space prevents me from detailing all the articles which show this constitution to be a complete abdication of our sovereignty but can I just ask people not to be taken in by the so-called EU Charter on Human Rights. We have a European Convention on Human Rights, based at Strasbourg. All this EU charter would do is to tailor this down so that human rights were conditional upon agreement with EU policies.

Whether it is better wages and conditions, better growth, better environmental protection and better defence policies, I want an elected Westminster government to decide it, not an unelected EU Constitution.

JIM HOMEWOOD,

Rectory Green,

Prestwich.