THE school uniform has long been an important element of British culture. Its purpose is to remove, as far as is possible, social differences from the classroom so that children can learn together as equals, regardless of their backgrounds, and so that each generation promises a new beginning for our society.

The recent court victory for the admirable Miss Begum - who has stood by her beliefs when most others would not have - is a good example of how our country is being taken from us.

Our legal system, based on case law and common law, is closely tied in to our traditions,customs and beliefs and has been tried and tested over many years.

By contrast, the Human Rights Act has its origins in European thinking and places far more emphasis on the rights of the individual than on the overall good of society. It gives little consideration to the implications on society at large of rulings derived from it.

I think the effect of this ruling will be that many young female Muslims will feel under pressure to show that they are as true to their Islamic beliefs as possible and so adopt the jilbab.

These young Muslims may well become alienated from the young, indigenous population and also the more westernised Asian children as they manifest their separate identities. Such divisions - as Northern Ireland has demonstrated - can be very detrimental to our society. The overall effect will be to weaken our sense of "Britishness"and community by the destruction of another of our ways of life and by making us a more divided people.

This is an example of how membership of the European Union is steadily changing Britain in a way to which we have never given our consent and which we seem to have little control over.

Tony Blair's promotion of the European Constitution and his wife's involvement in this particular case are proof of New Labours' commitment to "selling out" Britain to Europe, irrespective of the wishes of the British people.

The British National Party believes that if we are to retain our culture and customs we must leave the European Union.

STEWART CLOUGH,

Summerseat, Bury.