30 DECEMBER 1995, Page 22

A new dawn?

Sir: The analogy Frank Johnson makes with 1789 and today's Euro-sceptics (9 Decem- ber) is a shallow one and not worthy of his usual perceptiveness.

In 1789 the French mob were seeking a drastic change in the constitutional position of France; in 1995 it is the French govern- ment, not the mob, seeking such change, not only for themselves but for all members of the European Union, by the determined pursuit of monetary union, a single curren- cy and the pan-European government that it will undoubtedly create.

Of course the French government on the present occasion will give in to the mob. They always do. This time a beneficial result will be that the revolutionaries in France who wish to push Europe into the Euro-mark and all that entails will be stopped in their tracks and the ancien regime preserved. Truly it would be bliss in that dawn to be alive, however much Fox and Wordsworth misjudged a previous one.

David Martin MP

House of Commons, London, SW!