European folly
Sir: Your splendid editorial on the record of the Government to date (September 17) yet again endorses the sheer folly of the Prime Minister's excursion into Europe. How right, too, you are in your assessment of the unions' stand on this issue. Mr Scanlon has already gone on record as saying that one of the reasons behind the engineers' 40 per cent pay claim is "the Government's intention to go into the Common Market, with the inevitable effect of further price increases."
Nor should too much be made of the support of industry for entry into the EEC. The Confederation of British Industry has been to the forefront of the campaign to gain public support for this cause. The Director-General, Campbell Adamson (who took over from John Davies), has even appended his signature to a misleading European Movement advertisement in the the Times to this effect.
Yet when he wrote to the 11,500 odd members of the CBI, asking if they would "express a view as to whether Britain should join the European Economic Community," less than 10 per cent acknowledged his letter. And while it is true that the majority of those who replied were in favour, it can also be argued that the 90 per cent who did not were unwilling to commit themselves either for or against UK membership of the EEC.
Likewise there is also firm evidence of at least one Chamber of Commerce announcing the result of a ' vote ' in favour of entry into Europe when they had not even canvassed their members on the issue. The fact that the great debate' has descended to such a level is an indication of extreme (and, in some cases, dis. honest) lengths that some of the participants will go to in order to get their message across.
James Towler
25 Moseley Wood Lane, Cookridge, Leeds
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