LIBERAL DEMOCRAT word-spinner Richard Grant (In My View, August 20) says “embrace the European Union and be part of the global experience”.

This is a contradiction in terms.

As Conservative MEP Dan Hannan has pointed out, when Britain joined the EEC in 1973, western Europe had experienced a quarter of a century of unprecedented growth.

Giving up our overseas markets in return for being part of that bloc seemed a price worth paying. Since then though, it is the rest of the world that has prospered.

Europe is the only continent on the planet that is not growing economically.

Yet, trapped behind the Common External Tariff, forced to apply a commercial policy dictated as much by continental protectionism as by our own openmarket instincts, we are not able to fully exploit the opportunities of more distant continents.

As Mr Hannan says, if you want the case against EU membership in one example, how about this; while the EU has shelved its trade talks with India, EFTA is in the process of negotiating a free trade agreement with that rising giant.

The EU increasingly looks like what it is: a hangover from the 1950s unsuited to an age when trade happens instantaneously, electronically and globally. It is time to move on.

DOROTHY FUDGE, Totton.