TERRORISTS plant a bomb at a police station, detonate it and spray the rubble with small-arms fire.

An Army patrol returns their fire, killing all of them. The European Court of Human Rights concludes that the terrorists' rights have been violated, as their deaths have not been properly investigated, and that their families should receive £10,000 each in compensation.

I think most people in this country will have been disgusted by this perverse ruling from the meddling European Union court.

But what reaction do we get from our New Labour Government? Do they spring to the defence of our security forces or point out the ludicrous, flawed nature of this decision? No, not a bit of it; all we get from Mr Blair's spokesman is that "it's a 250-page ruling and we need time to consider it".

This betrayal comes from a government that has relied upon our armed forces to rescue it from one mess after another. The Army was sent to Sierra Leone, not to support the UN troops operating there, but to save our Foreign Secretary's face.

Tony Blair's macho posturing has resulted in the RAF and Army being sent to Bosnia, to intervene in another country's civil war. Our desperate Government would also have used the Army to break a second fuel protest.

Now we learn that sweeping cuts of £1.2bn are being proposed, which will have a "highly damaging impact" on Britain's defences. This is just another strand of New Labour's European integrationist policies.

If we wish to remain as British subjects of an independent kingdom, we must make a positive choice on June 7. The alternative is to allow apathy and stealth to turn us into Citizens of the European Union. We must either be in the EU, or we must withdraw. There is no middle way.

R G SPENCER, Malvern.