MESSRS Homewood, Wiseman and Ceeaitch, whilst continuing to attack Britain's membership of the European Union, all fail to put forward any credible alternative for dealing with decisions which need to be made at a level greater than that of the individual nation state.

Attempting to put the clock back is certainly not an option. Whilst we live on an island, it is many years since a few miles of water were capable of insulating us from changes which may not be to our liking. An obvious example is climate change where the European Union is the only grouping which is seriously trying to do anything about what is arguably the largest single threat to us in the world today.

Meanwhile Jim Homewood asks me if I am still strongly opposed to nuclear weapons. The answer is yes. He goes on to ask how I can "see the ultimate control of such weapons vested in the hands of the EU". The answer is that I am not likely to see that because it is not going to happen.

Firstly, many EU states would not be prepared to go along with nuclear weapons as part of an EU defence policy, and secondly, and regrettably, the UK Government is firmly attached to keeping its so-called "independent" deterrent which is singularly useless in the context of terrorism.

In return, Mr Homewood might like to ponder whether he is happy with the current situation under which the UK retains nuclear weapons, or with their being included in NATO's nuclear "first strike" policy. Or, even more to the point, whether he is happy for us to be so apparently tied to the defence and foreign policies of the United States under President George Bush.

President Bush has no need to search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq since all the experts have now concluded there are none, whilst we all know that the largest stocks of instantly useable weapons of mass destruction in the world are under the president's own control.

COUN DEREK BODEN