YOUR correspondent Christopher Denne (Letters, August 14) must be incredibly naïve suggesting that Britain has not ?handed over control to Europe?.

I have taken the Government to task about a number of issues, from homosexuals in the Armed Forces, transsexuals being given the right to use female changing facilities and to have their gender altered on their birth certificates, to traders being made criminals for selling in the pounds and ounces their customers want.

The replies have often been sympathetic, but the answer has always been the same: that the Government has had to comply with European legislation.

We now have little say in running our own affairs, will have even less when ten more countries are added to the EU, and virtually none if our undemocratic prime minister is allowed to quietly sign us up to the proposed European Constitution behind our backs.

Only the UK Independence Party seems to be awake to what is happening. The others either want to see us handed over to be run by a foreign power, or are letting us sleep walk our way to oblivion!

Terence Scarborough

1 Uplands , Tavistock

IN his letter Christopher Denne would appear to accuse me of scaremongering when I exposed a few facts about the European Union that perhaps the Euro supporters would rather the people didn?t know.

I would like to assure readers that all we at UKIP seek to do is to expose the truth about the UK?s involvement in the European Union and at least offer the people a choice.

We do not use spin-doctors, we don?t need them, we just use researchers to collect information that would stand up in a court of law if necessary.

Perhaps Mr Denne would like to accompany me on a public platform and then we can let the people decide for themselves just who is telling the truth and who is spinning it.

Graham Palmer

Lambs Park, Sheepstor

CHRISTOPHER Denne states ?Nothing is more likely to turn them ( the young) away from politics than the myth (my italics) that we have given control of our country to a political regime we now call the European Union?.

May I draw your attention,Christopher, to The draft EU Constitution which states: ?The Constitution, and law adopted by the union institutions in exercising competences conferred on it by the Constitution, shall have primacy (!) over the law of the member states.? No loss of control eh, Chris?

Bramwell J Ibbett

5 Torbridge Road, Horrabridge

WHILST I am strongly in favour of Europe as an area in which to holiday, trade and so on, I am not in favour of the UK being a member of the EU for a number of reasons.

It does not require us to be members of the EU in order to trade with the EU. If there were any clear economic advantages to us being members, then it would be worth considering, but our membership has cost us £300 billion to date, and we continue to fork out £11 billion per annum to support a system which is unelected, unaccountable and cannot be dismissed, other than the democratic fig leaf that is the European Parliament.

It?s agenda is driven by socialist ideology and big business, and needs vast numbers of regulations, directives and officials to monitor and control almost every aspect of our lives.

Secondly, and crucially, the proposed EU Constitution has been widely seen by many commentators, including UK participants in the convention which produced it, as being the mechanism for establishing a legal entity called the EU.

This entity will have its own legal system, armed forces, police, anthem, flag, currency, taxing powers, etc to set and control all major policy issues such as to make it a ?world power? able to compete with the USA.

Whether or not one agrees with the objective, it is clear as to what is finally being brought about after years of slow, careful, incremental advances by the EU bureaucrats with virtually no input by the electorate. It is progressive destruction of a nation state, by loss of their own law-making powers, and the construction of a federal superstate as predicated by the founding fathers of the EU in 1952. To my mind that equates to loss of sovereignty.

Dave Weeks

Courtlyns, Exbourne