Letter: Blair can save Europe from nationalists

Sir: Noting Sarah Helm's article on Continental scepticism towards the European Union ("The British have been led to believe only they are sceptical about Europe", 12 December), I was most surprised to discover that British support for the EU had risen to 43 per cent in the wake of the beef crisis.

I come from a region that has been bled white over decades of lack of British inward investment; a region that has benefited greatly from recent economic support from Brussels. I am grateful to discover that I am increasingly not alone in welcoming wider European integration, despite the misgivings about the possible destabilising effect of the euro.

Caught between a farming industry that thinks it perfectly acceptable to feed the ground-up remains of diseased sheep offal to animals (and then become totally absent-minded about it) and a prevaricating British government, I must be one of many British citizens who increasingly look to Brussels for protection from these appalling people.

DAVID R PARRY

Liverpool