IT is well known that Britain, over the last few years, has often been in conflict with our European partners.

Yet in its annual economic report, the European Commission was forced to single out the United Kingdom for having achieved a recovery of longer duration than the rest of the European Union.

And they also confessed that our prolonged recovery was based to a large extent on the Conservative employment reforms of the 1980s.

I find it very ironic that Britain, which is generally opposed to a single currency, could qualify for it, while the French and Germans, who are all for it at present, would not qualify for it. The rest of Europe is now following the policies of Mrs Thatcher's government in their attempt to qualify for the single currency.

The real facts are that Britain has the lowest unemployment in the whole of Europe. That would soon change if Mr Blair was elected to office. Britain cannot afford a Labour government.

D PEARSON (Mr) (vice chairman Blackburn Conservative Association), Rawstorne Street, Blackburn.

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