A DANGEROUS situation will be created if Britain continues to align itself with Europe, according to a former EC official.

Bernard Connolly, from Upper Welland, will be joining author and journalist Christopher Booker and Richard Chamings, the Worcester prospective parliamentary candidate for the UK Independence Party, at a public meeting on Monday, March 19.

Mr Connolly, a political expert on European monetary affairs, said the meeting wuold be about the issue of Europe, how it affects this country and what we should be doing about it.

"Essentially what I'll be saying is that the idea of Europe as a political entity is extremely dangerous to us," he said.

"What we can see happening before our eyes from day- to-day is the building of an autocratic and intolerant society in which democracy is completely annihilated, to the benefit of people like bureaucrats and politicians who will become increasingly unaccountable.

"It's dangerous, too, in that it will create a rift between Europe and the US which is becoming increasingly aware that one of the driving forces behind the creation of the European Union is to create a rival to the US.

"At some point, Britain has to choose whether it is a part of the Anglo-Saxon world, with the US and Canada, or a part of something called Europe." Mr Connolly was sacked by the European Commission in 1996 for writing and publishing a book, The Rotten Heart of Europe - The Dirty War for Europe's Money, which attacked the single currency.

Last week, he heard that he had lost his five-year battle against wrongful dismissal and now he is considering taking his case to the European Court of Human Rights.

The public meeting will take place at the County Cricket Ground, New Road, Worcester at 7.30pm.