Letter: Europe's shame

Sir: You lament the shameful reliance of the European powers on American hardware to solve a local difficulty in Kosovo (leading article, 3 August). How right you are.

Where is the spirit of Europe which shaped the world in which we live - Greece, Rome, the Renaissance, Spanish, Portuguese, French and British colonialism, not to mention the Industrial Revolution? Are we now to pass our influence on to a brash upstart who may share many of our values but has been known to embrace isolationism and is already bellyaching about the cost of being the global policeman?

The pro-European campaign fights on the wrong ground. The case for the euro is debatable and I, as a chartered accountant, find it difficult to get my head fully round all its implications. To make it the subject of a referendum is the height of imbecility. Pro-Europeans should be campaigning on the political case for closer union, essentially the need for a single foreign policy and defence forces of a size equal to those of the US and large enough to protect us from Russia if the US ever retreats behind its ocean moats.

The euro could then be dealt with as it should, as an economic technical matter, by those who understand its implications.

DAVID FAULL

Ramsgate, Kent