Euro-sceptic defence
Sir: Frank Johnson's leader (9 December) accuses Euro-sceptics of mean-spirited nationalism, relishing the riots in France, equates them with Charles James Fox's fan- tasies in 1789, accuses them of Ger- manophobia and concludes that real Euro- sceptics should resist the 'grand design' of competing national states.
He should dig a bit deeper. Those Euro- sceptics like myself who really want a peaceful and stable Europe (including sen- sible relations between France, Germany and ourselves) have argued that the French riots are but a symptom of the failure of the grand design of Maastricht. It is the politi- cal elite, not the electorates of Europe, who are creating a European compression chamber within an undemocratic and unac- countable legal framework and they are expecting the German taxpayers and our own to pay for escalating social security costs and pensions, incompetence, waste, fraud and unemployment throughout the European Union.
It is the mean-spirited Euro-nationalist elite who are to blame. Their absurd plans will generate more unemployment and dis- order. The Maastricht system will collapse and, with it, the new European rule of law. It must be renegotiated at the IGC and replaced by a European Community of democratic nation states. The uncertainty and indecision of waiting until the general election simply make it worse.
Fox backed mob rule, the elitism and the Euro-nationalism of Napoleon and British pacifism — not democracy. Nothing could be further from the genuine Euro-sceptic case.
Bill Cash MP
The European Foundation, 61 Pall Mall, London SW1
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