Letter: A euro tactic for Tories

Sir: In reply to Jonathan Dumbell's questions to Eurosceptics (letter, 30 December). A single currency would expose companies and economies to market forces within Europe, and too rapidly to enable compensating mechanisms to be developed; result, Mr Dumbell falls over more beggars as he walks through London E15. Our continental cousins are not yet burdened with the "yoke of Brussels" in its mature phases, obviously; their present advantages cannot be ascribed to an institution that does not yet exist.

This century has seen quite enough of the "chill winds of Teutonic efficiency" - and history has some "pithy comments" on elements of that phenomenon, too.

For all that, "Eurosceptics" are not sceptical about Europeans, or trade, or about learning from others' virtues. We are sceptical only about the machinations of the power-hungry, British or foreign.

HEON STEVENSON

Centre for Legal Studies

University of Sussex

Brighton