MR Sedgwick (Letters, October 31) either misunderstood or chose to ignore the two points I was trying to make in my previous letter.

Firstly, I was protesting against his assumption that, as people grow older, they become less intelligent. This simply isn't true.

In fact Mr Sedgwick contradicts himself by implying that, as he is 14 years older than me, his 'experience' is more valid than my 'conjecture.'

Most people of my acquaintance who are older than I have no problems dealing with metric measurements.

Secondly, by pointing out both good and bad reasons for EU membership, I was explaining that this country's further integration into Europe is not a black-and-white issue.

Mr Sedgwick's arguments lose credibility when he pretends that it is.

There was no link between decimalization and joining Europe: we decimalised along with Australia and New Zealand because it would have been prohibitively expensive not to do so in the upcoming computer age.

I actually campaigned against the UK joining the Common Market and will probably campaign against further integration, though not, I would guess, for the same reasons as Mr Sedgwick.

BILL PINDER, Banbury Avenue, Oswaldtwistle.