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Letter to the Editor

Northampton Chronicle & Echo - Wednesday, 24 September 2003


Dear Sir,

Lib-Dem euro-hopeful Richard Church (Letters 19 Sept) attacks what he calls my "complacency", and tries to make the inward investment argument for the euro. He obviously hasn't been following his own party's policy too closely. Having been slavish fans of Brussels for years, the Lib-Dems have belatedly realised that the rest of the country disagrees, and have decided to talk about reforming the EU, and to go easy on the euro.

Leading Lib-Dem MEP Chris Davies says "We can just forget about it (the euro) until the next parliament is formed".

But even in his own terms, Mr. Church is plain wrong. He quotes EU Commission figures showing a decline in inward investment. Odd, then, that Ernst & Young, the leading consultancy firm, in their recent inward investment report, say exactly the opposite - that UK inward investment remains the highest in Europe and that our share of a reduced pot is holding steady.

Why the difference? Because Ernst & Young are measuring new projects, which are what really matter for jobs and growth. But the Commission includes company takeover activity, which often means job cuts and streamlining. As usual, the Lib-Dems have the wrong end of the stick.

I suggest that it is Mr. Church who is complacent about massive unemployment in France and Germany. The euro experiment is failing badly, but he still wants us to join it.

Yours faithfully,

Roger Helmer MEP