THE more Dave Weeks (Letters, August 29) peddles his anti-Europe rhetoric the more holes seem to be appearing in his argument, to the detriment of those good points he does often make.

Like him, I have a great many misgivings about the whole European project, but to dismiss every single idea that comes forward about the EU is just plain nonsense.

Far from taking power away from us it will bring decision making and consultation much closer to us. Mr Weeks is well informed on the background, so presumably he knows, as do I and everyone else interested in this topic, that with regionalisation will come re-shaped single-tier local councils, thus saving at least a large part of the cost of the regional assembly.

Furthermore, Westminster will no longer be able to ride roughshod over our views in Devon about what's best for us because the electorate in the South East outweigh us in the number of MPs they return. Witness the situation with education budgets and Devon getting no allowance for the huge costs of school transport.

To suggest that the EU can in some way be likened to Hitler risks making Mr Weeks' arguments a laughing stock. Hitler was a complete psychopath hell-bent on one-man domination of Europe.

The EU came about as a direct response to him and Japanese imperialism (like the UN) and aims to forge greater understanding of the inter-linked relationship we have with our European neighbours, like that fact or not. We're all human, and have more in common than we don't.

If stopping another Great War breaking out in the future requires more inter-dependence on each other than so be it. The increasingly global nature of our trade is doing it anyway, so why not have the political and social structures to keep the checks and balances in place before Enronitis spreads too far round the globe?

Yes, the EU sometimes does get it wrong. But that's politicians for you. The closer we get to them, the better to make ourselves understood.

Don't get me wrong, I'm proud of being both Devonian and English, but also to be British, European and a member of the world at large too.

Dave Goodwin

Hillfield

South Zeal