I fear that Mr Kershaw is not alone (Postbag, September 7). Many people in this country display the same woeful ignorance of history and, indeed, the aims of the European Union which were exemplified by his letter.

It has been NATO, supported largely by American manpower and material, which has kept the peace in Europe for the last 50 years. The EU, with its rabidly anti-US attitude, is attempting to supplant their influence and advance its own pretensions to statehood by ill-conceived interference in eastern Europe, and particularly the Balkans.

As history shows, when disparate peoples have previously been corralled together for the supposed 'common good', it is far more likely that the EU will become the cause of unrest and instability. Anti-EU groups are growing in nearly all of the 15 member states, most of whose peoples have not even been given a choice about abandoning their national currencies in favour of joining a protectionist, centrally run EU economy.

Just as in the UK, these opposition groups have, as yet, received little publicity, because it does not suit the small, left-wing liberal clique, who are being allowed to decide our destiny by backroom dealing on our behalf, but without our involvement. These professional politicians want us all to concentrate on domestic issues, like health and education, in order to obscure their grandiose plans for a federal European superstate. People, like Mr Kershaw, don't seem to realise that if we continue along the path of further integration, such domestic issues will also be decided in Brussels, as our national democracy disappears. If anyone has the temerity to challenge the necessity or wisdom of such changes, they are accused of being 'alarmist', 'hysterical' or 'xenophobic little Englanders', in order to stifle the debate.

We should be allowed to decide for ourselves either to be fully integrated in the EU, or to come out. It is unfair to continue to hold other member countries back (if that's what their peoples genuinely want), and detrimental to our own future. However, to do this we need an honest debate. The alternative is to accept these plans, fait accompli, by allowing apathy and stealth to turn us into Citizens of the European Union by default.

I feel we will have to leave sooner or later, as this wasteful juggernaut of a socialist experiment will eventually break up under its own weight. It would be far better if we extricated ourselves now, before it becomes too messy. We can then stand ready to help our European neighbours when the time comes, as we have previously had to do when their leader's federalist schemes got out of hand.

R G Spencer, Court Road, Malvern.