I am writing in response to two recent letters sent to the Times. First the letter from Christopher Denne who sang the praises of the European Movement and its well known worthy supporters. Secondly, the letter written by Geoffrey Willetts who is quite rightly incensed at the closure of his local post office.

Some would argue that our elected representatives have no say in what happens to our post offices. They maintain that EU directive 97/67/EC is the root cause of our problems.

Now, Mr Denne, perhaps you can explain to us all how the European Union has, to quote your own words, 'given us an immense opportunity' with respect to closures of post offices in rural areas .

To balance the European Movement, readers might be interested to know about the Independence Democracy Group of which Nigel Farage is group co- president.

The EU election to be held on June 4 will give us all an opportunity to voice our concerns not only about our loss of vital services but also the loss of our national identity and our very way of life.

V A Cushing Okehampton

MR WEEKS (Letters, February 26) accuses me of being ill-informed about the steps taken to protest against the closure of rural post offices.

Ill-informed I am not; disillusioned I am. As Mr Weeks tells us, 2,500 post offices have been closed, thus the methods of protest he describes as having taken place have been singularly ineffective. A number of people I have spoken to recently were quite unaware that any protests had taken place.

Attempting to protest using the methods Mr Weeks describes we have lost our rural railways, village schools, engaged in unpopular wars in the Middle East and are soon to lose thousands of policemen if we don't do something about it.

For me, the only way to protest effectively is by local, regional and national referenda, when all of us would be given the opportunity to express our wishes in the ballot box.

Geoffrey Willetts

Grenville Drive

Tavistock

GEOFFREY Willetts (Letters, February 19) asked what our elected representatives have done to prevent post office closures. The sad fact is that even if they wanted to they could do nothing.

These closures, in common with most of our new laws, are driven by EU directives, which makes one wonder what useful purpose our Parliament serves, and I find it difficult to understand why most of our politicians appear to be quite happy to be rendered irrelevant without protest, although of course they are still receiving full pay.

If anybody has the time and patience to wade through volumes of 'Eurospeak' I understand that the relevant directives are 97/67/EC and 2002/38/EC.

R J Ayton

2 Parade Cottage

Exbourne