REGARDING your Opinion (LET, January 6), it seems you were taking another opportunity to present your Europhile credentials, albeit in a roundabout way.

You highlight William Hague's weakness on the position he has taken on the single currency and suggest he should take heed of Tory grandees, Messrs Clarke, Heseltine, Ted Heath, etc. This bunch of old traitors would sell their own grandmothers.

No, the advice I would give William Hague is to stick to his guns on the single currency. And when the 10 years, during which he has ruled out membership, are up, he should extend it another 10 years.

All those in favour of the single currency must also be in favour of United States of Europe. Very soon, the people will have to decide on this monumental issue. They are entitled to know the full facts and not the propaganda put out by the EU.

Smokescreens will be sent up about the loss of jobs, loss of influence and isolation. Some of this may be true, but neither can they guarantee the reverse of this. When and if the Europhiles get their way, and we join a federal Europe, they will have surrendered all control of this country's own destiny. Once this step has been taken, there is no turning back.

We are supposed to have a referendum on this issue, but the signals we get from the Government are that we are going in and it is just a question of when.

It would appear they know the result of the referendum before it takes place. Even the Europhiles can't feel comfortable with that. I well remember the last referendum on our being in the Common Market. Of all the people I spoke to, only one was in favour.

However, the pro-Euros won with a large majority. Of course, the votes were not counted locally as in the General Election - they were all taken down to London. That may have some bearing on how they can predict the outcome before the event.

F GRIMSHAW, Garfield Street, Accrington.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.