Letter: EU fight for jobs

Sir: Before the brouhaha and angst over European business taxes has died down, a critical point should be clarified in the minds of all concerned.

The proposal does not reach the starting post. The principle was established, quite forcefully, 350 years ago, that no tax may be imposed in this country except by free decision of Parliament. No court not answerable to Parliament itself, whether Star Chamber, Court of Exchequer, or Council of Ministers, may lay any kind of tax on us, or instruct Parliament to do so. No one need pay such a tax. This is a principle from which surely all nations must benefit (as America did). Do we have to cut off more heads to underline it? If so, whose?

Why, I wonder, do European politicians vie with the Eurosceptics in providing inexhaustible ammunition to undermine the European system? Is Mr Lafontaine a secret Europhobe?

WILLIAM STEVENSON

Edinburgh