eurealist.co.uk

Sir - When Daniel Hannan says "we are fantasising about the kind of EU we might ideally like to have", he is highlighting the dilemma faced by Britain as a result of its membership (Opinion, March 20).

We are swimming against the tide of European integration, which is the raison d’être of the whole project. It has never suited Britain to be a part of this adventure, as our whole history and constitution have been devoted to independence - independence from foreign control and independence of the people from executive control.

Parliament has, since its inception, been the manifestation of the power of the people. The institutions of the EU, which is a foreign power, have superseded it and the people, as typified by Mr Hannan, are gradually waking up to that fact.

Are we to be a nation or a province of Europe?

Alan Smith, Sanderstead, Surrey

Sir - Daniel Hannan is quite right to point out that the EU constitution, rejected by the French and Dutch electorates, is being imposed on us anyway.

He also correctly implies that the federalists have complete contempt for formal democracy as we know it.

However, he is wrong to claim that Open Europe is "waging a lonely campaign" to alert people to such eurofederalist intrigue. Trade Unionists against the EU Constitution (TUAEUC) and the Campaign against Euro Federalism (CAEF) have continually alerted trade unionists to the undemocratic nature of these developments. Indeed, delegates to the British TUC last September overwhelmingly backed opposition to the EU constitution.

The centre-Left Centre for a Social Europe also puts out daily e-bulletins alerting the labour and trade union movement to the dangers ably outlined by Mr Hannan. The cross-party Democracy Movement also has an excellent website outlining, among other issues, the threat to civil liberties enshrined within the discredited EU constitution.

Democrats are in danger of talking ourselves into a self-fulfilling prophecy of dominance from Brussels unless we highlight the vast breadth of growing opposition that exists against such a state of affairs.

Brian Denny, Trade Unionists against the EU Constitution, London E1

Telegraph Letters