Letter: Eurobank row

Sir: Giles Radice claims (Comment, 4 May), that "it could be to our lasting national disadvantage to put off the decision to join the euro too long". In fact it would be to our lasting national advantage to make the decision now not to join.

History shows that the artificial union of disparate nation states always ends in bloodshed. And I fear for the future of our grandchildren. The loss of sovereignty by absorption in to a "country called Europe", the inevitable eventual consequence of our membership of EMU, would spell the end of our considerable influence in the world - an influence which has been a force for good over many centuries. It would also spell the end of our prosperity, hard-won as an independent nation.

Harmonisation, the buzz-word of the EU, is all about agreement and compatibility, and yet France and Germany, the two countries which intend to rule Europe, cannot agree on the simple issue of the chairmanship of the European Central Bank.

GERRY HANSON

Iver Heath, Buckinghamshire