I WARNED last November that a Tony Blair referendum on "joining the euro" would commit our nation to eventual overall control by a single European government. One currency demands one government.

Some might have dismissed that warning as scaremongering, but things have moved on. Bearing in mind an imminent general election, we now ignore it at our peril.

Tony Blair said last year that "The political case for joining the Euro is overwhelming," but he has not said why. The reverse is truer, if not blindingly obvious! He has already carved the UK into 'European' regions with undemocratic, unelected regional assemblies in England.

Blair's 'New' Labour Party is a member of the bloc of European Socialists who, on May 8, plan to launch a group known as the New Federalists, whose aim is to secure total political union in Europe and federation of its states and people.

Joining the single European currency would be an irreversible first step into that boiling federalist arena. The cost of our currency switch would be almost £1,000 per voter!

According to surveys, including our own in Pendle, nearly 70 per cent of the electorate want to 'keep the pound.' Keeping our currency is the key to improving control of our economy and the funding of our public services, since we would determine our own taxation policy and interest rates.

Your General Election polling station will without doubt be "The Last Chance Saloon' for the pound and for British sovereignty.

If Labour wins Tony Blair -- backed by Liberal-Democrat leader Charles Kennedy -- will take us into the euro within the next five years and before he once again faces a general election. That is the clear implication of the stated timetable for his loaded referendum.

JOHN LUSTIG, chairman, Pendle Conservative Association, Cross Street, Nelson.