CONTRIBUTIONS to this letters column frequently denounce the EU, proclaiming themselves as the last defenders of the sovereign state. They do so without defining what is sovereignty and what are its direct benefits for ordinary people.

Draping themselves in the Union Jack, these Euro-sceptics and fellow-travellers devalue and cheapen the term sovereignty every time they present it for the purpose of protecting privileged position and associated "Little Englander" obsessions.

The average worker is only too well aware that this Government, singing Rule Britannia, has fearlessly rejected each and every Euro-directive and regulation aimed at improving employee rights and working conditions.

The European Court has been the civilising institution, not sovereignty, which in recent years has brought to ordinary people advances in maternity, parental and retirement rights.

Improvements in the rights to claim unfair dismissal and redundancy, the move towards works councils, the greater protection against discrimination, are now with us (with more to come) because of Europe and in spite of the fraudulent use of sovereignty.

The overpowering stench of hypocrisy envelops us further when the Conservative Party and its leaders, always known historically as the "Party of Unemployment", claim defending sovereignty will protect jobs and reduce the dole queue.

Sovereignty has never stopped anyone losing their job or a home being repossessed. It is simply wheeled out from time to time by those whose interests lie in making certain that unfair systems remain unfair.

DON RISHTON, Chairman, Lancashire South European Constituency Labour Party, Livesey Branch Road, Blackburn.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.