SIR: I refer to: "The Spectre of Germanic domination?" (Your views, BEN June 23). Somebody should tell your correspondent that the Second World War ended over half a century ago. It is time to let it take an honourable place in history, and to get on with the business of living. And anyway, the point about postwar European integration is that it was supposed to avoid any future threat of war by encouraging the nation-states of Europe to pool their sovereignty. It is precisely this process to which Sir James Goldsmith, and your correspondent, apparently object. It's about time we made our minds up whether we want to live in the past or the present.

As to referendums on Europe, when there was a real possibility of pulling out of the EC, the country voted to stay in. If we stay in, we could, like successive Tory governments, whinge interminably, and behave like spoilt brats every time we fail to get our own way, or we could start doing deals which genuinely further our interests, while recognising that our partners also have wishes, and interests. Strip cartoon politics, and crude national stereotyping, whether about the Germans, the French, or the Italians, belong to the world of adolescent fantasy. They're not part of the world of grown-ups. Getting out of the EC isn't an option any more, and however many referendums Sir James Goldsmith sponsors won't change that.

Cllr Peter D Johnston

Kendal Road, Bolton

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