Britain's barriers to European travel : LETTERS

From Mr John Parry Sir: Your report on the latest stage in the Schengen agreement ("Britain stays out of borderless Europe", 23 December) is good news for the holiday season.

From March 1995, travellers between the seven EU Schengen countries will no longer be subjected to document checks at either land borders or airports, though they will be expected to carry their normal identity card.

But is it not ironic that in the same week our own Govenment should announce ("Passport rules change", 21 December) that travel to other EU countries will be made more difficult for British citizens as both one-day excursion and one-year visitor's passp o rts are to be scrapped and from January 1996 all UK travellers will need to go through the tedious process of obtaining a full standard passport?

What happened, I wonder, to the aim of ensuring that Britain should be at the heart of Europe?

Yours sincerely, John Parry Chairman International Relations Committee European Movement London, SW1

24 December