BRITAIN is facing a precarious future, brought about by the loss of an empire which supplied cheap food and raw materials and was a guaranteed export market.
There has been a catastrophic decline of its manufacturing industries, maritime trade and fisheries.
The fact is that it now has to compete in a highly competitive global economy.
And it has 50 million people, packed together on a small area of land with diminishing natural resources.
Faced with these stark facts national unity is essential.
The country cannot afford political, class, social, ethnic or religious conflict.
Britain's foreign and defence policies and its social structure need a radical overhaul. It cannot carry on as if it were still an imperial power, the workshop of the world and its navy ruled the waves.
JOHN PORTER, Thwaites Road, Oswaldtwistle.
Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.
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