SIR,

I would like to thank Darren Douglas for responding to my letter about the European Court and I will try to answer his points if I can.

Firstly, to point out that foriegn terrorists can come to the UK, plot to attack us and our way of life and then prove themselves impossible to deport is not scaremongering or xenophobia, it is simply a point worth discussing. And to address his other points:

1. Just because a government is elected democratically doesn't mean it can do what it likes. It certainly doesn't give it the right to reduce or erode the very powers the people gave it by handing them over to an unaccountable third party.

The Lisbon treaty, signed by Gordon Brown, is more or less a licence for the EU to become a federal government. In substance it is 96 per cent of EU constitution which was rejected by the people of France and Holland.

The fact that it was simply repackaged and rammed through without giving the people of Europe a say on it makes it an odd choice for Mr Douglas to choose as an example of how our democacy is being defended.

2. The Common Market was about trade. The EU is about making a federal superstate. Lisbon gives the EU embassies, a president, a foriegn minister and makes it a legal entity rather than just an agreement between governments.

Its laws supercede those of national elected parliaments if there is a conflict. By any neutral definition that is a federal body. 

3. The financial transactions tax Mr Douglas champions would have simply driven business to parts of the world that don't have it. It would have deminished the City that provides 10 per cent of the UK GDP and cost many jobs.

The UK would have provided 80 per cent of the EU-wide take of such a tax, the proceeds of which were ear-marked to prop up the Euro; the irony won't be lost on many.

Mr Douglas also ignores the fact that the banking crisis did not destroy our economy, it simply dealt the finishing blow. After 13 years of Labour rule, through the most benign economic conditions imaginable, Ed Balls and Gordon Brown managed to inflate national debt and construct a hellish fiscal deficit.

When the crisis hit there was no means to fix it. Labour's attempts to re-write history and blame the whole thing on the banks is as unsurprising as it is effective – sadly.

4. We elect politicians that make laws that are in our national interest and are subject to the will of the people. The European Court and its laws cannot be described in such terms.

5. We hand over about £8 billion a year to the EU, which is about 25 per cent of our defence budget. Not a trivial sum to give away simply to allow us to run a trade deficit with our neighbours.

Mr Douglas' final point, that European problems need European solutions, is just meaningless rhetoric. The European problem is that countries are borrowing huge sums they can never repay just to keep themelves locked into a currency that suits Germany and France.

If they were free and had their own currencies back they could de-value, set interest rates that suit them and become competitive again.

This whole crisis came about because governments spent money they didn't have and joined a mad crusade for a United States of Europe.

I would have thought that suggesting Britain distance itself from this self inflicted disaster and reject laws (and people) that run against its national interests was a fairly sensible point to make.

Gareth Dunn

(Monmouth)