LETTERS Blinkered zealotry
From Mr David Radlett Sir: 'Blair bottles out' (11 December)? That statement surely fits more appropriately Mark Littlewood. He grizzles about the reali- ty of power politics, blaming it for his depar- ture from the organisation Britain in Europe, yet he fails to tell the reader why he joined it in the first place. It is surely not enough to claim that he thought it would be a campaign for the single currency. Nor is it enough to proclaim ardent pro-European belief.
The problem for BiE is that it is desper- ately difficult to identify value in the single currency. It might work for the 11 members whose combined economy depends so little on world trade. The plummet in the value of the euro may well benefit them: a com- petitive edge for exports and little danger of importing inflation on the back of the 6 per cent of trade that they conduct with the rest of the world. The story is very different for Britain, which conducts 40 per cent of its trade with the big, bad world. Even the late Lord Home's matchstick economics would identify the problem there.
At least I was touched by his concern for the lost job opportunities for Brendan Don- nelly and Stephen Woodard. Still, never mind, they can join the thousands of ex- miners, the thousands of ex-steelworkers and the thousands of ex-fishermen whose jobs have been sacrificed on the altar of pro-European beliefs.
It is, of course, too much to hope that Mr Littlewood's encounter with reality will cause him to question his beliefs. Zealots are not renowned for their introspection. It is a shame that they cost the rest of us so much.
David N.P. Radlett
119 Livingstone Road, Gillingham, Kent
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