I TOTALLY refute the idea that the EU represents the good of anyone other than those same transnational corporations against whom Frank Adams (Your Letters, March 5) is railing.

Had we still control over interest rates, exchange rates and imports, a responsible government could have blocked the import of any produce which threatened our health. Unfortunately, the signing of the Maastricht Treaty has prevented this.

Today people automatically turn to the EU for everything as if Westminster has already been reduced to an enabling body for processing EU directives.

The farmers to whom he refers have accepted millions of pounds in subsidies, welcoming the CAP with open arms while practising their one-crop culture to the destruction of the ecology. As a result, our food costs the average family of four £940 more per year.

The CFP has destroyed our fishing industry while, in accordance with EU directives or to meet the convergence criteria, we have had wholesale privatisations (that of the rail industry being directly attributable to the EU, hence the refusal of this Government to return it to public ownership.) The dole has been replaced by the Job Seekers Allowance, robbing millions of workers of their entitlement after paying unemployment insurance.

Does Frank Adams' £400 per head per annum Defence spending figure include Trident and the Euro Fighter, strangely left out of the Strategic Review, or the millions spent on the obscene sales of arms to tyrannical regimes?

The £2,000 million to which I referred is certainly not an investment but is our net contribution to the EU. An investment you can withdraw. The money would do far more good directly invested, especially as it will increase help to support Eastern European economies with the EU expansion. We could make a start by cancelling Third World debt and ending the flood of cheap exports.

In 1972 we had a trade surplus of more than £398 million with the EU. Unemployment was 1.8 million and manufacturing output was 3.1 per cent. Our net contribution to the EC was nil.

In 1997 our manufacturing output was 1.9 per cent, our unemployment was 7.3 per cent and our trade deficit was £2.1 billion, while our accumulated deficit since 1972 was £213 billion.

The EU a force for good? I don't think so.

JIM HOMEWOOD,

Carr Avenue, Prestwich.

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