NOW that the jingle of euro coins has subsided on the Continent, one wonders what benefits will accrue.

The largest member of the EU, Germany, has an unemployment level fast approaching four million -- twice our rate. In the rest of the EU, unemployment is similarly high.

There is a notion among Europhiles that, by pooling our sovereignty, we would not cede control in vital areas of national interest (tell that to the people of Gibraltar).

As a famous statesman once quipped, you can no more pool sovereignty than you can pool virginity. Either you have it, or you don't.

D. BULLEN (Mr), Albany Road, Blackburn.