I AGREE with Councillor David Pearson (Letters, March 2) who accused the Prime Minister of doing a massive U-turn on his attitude towards Europe.

In 1983, Mr Blair was against the Common Market and, indeed, he would have been in favour of Britain pulling out of it.

During the General Election campaign, while he stressed that a Labour government would seek better relations with the European Community, he said that he loved the pound and it was safe with a Labour government.

Now he has shown that he and his government are in favour of abolishing the pound and joining the single currency. In my opinion, he should hold the referendum now on whether we join up but, alas for him, he realises if it were held now, there would almost certainly be a 'No' vote. So he has to wait until the British people become more in favour of joining the euro.

In his reply to Councillor Pearson, Duncan McVee (Letters, March 10) attempts to turn the arguments about the euro into a party issue. In other words, if you are a Labour voter, you vote 'Yes' because the Prime Minister wants you to. If you are a Tory voter, you vote 'No' because that is the policy of the Tory Party. That is foolish, because supporters of both the main parties will vote according to their views on Europe.

Mr McVee says that opinion polls show that nearly half of the British people favour Britain joining the euro. I disagree and would love a referendum now on the issue to prove it.

As a committed socialist, no doubt, Mr McVee was duly anti-European for many years. Now, because Mr Blair, his glorious leader, is in favour of the euro, like a Nazi Stormtrooper, he falls in to line.

Thank goodness there are people in the Labour Party like MPs Tony Benn and Dennis Skinner, who have stuck by their principles and will be campaigning against Britain joining the single currency.

If the British people have any sense they will vote 'No' because the alternative is to put our economy in the hands of unelected bankers who cannot be removed from office.

D YATES (Mrs), Brownhill Road, Blackburn.

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