I TAKE up my pen with sadness as more than 150 years of glass-making at Ravenhead Glass in St Helens has come to an end.

This was a good factory, with a good product, loyal customers, full order books and a proud workforce, but in the end all that was left was the pride.

And then that was knocked out of us, as we where beaten into submission by our Belgian parent company Durobor.

So what has the Government done, a strong Labour town, with a Labour Government in power? The answer is nothing.

So when Tony Blair asks us to vote for closer ties to Europe, and give more control to the EEC whose headquarters is also in Belgium, just remember what they did to a once-proud workforce in St Helens and the last tableware manufacturing plant in England. Then think of what damage they could to our proud nation.

Paul Challoner, former employee with 26 years service, now just another statistic (address supplied).