IF centralisation of power, with its inevitable high tax and waste, is the answer to solving the problems of our country ie transport and education to name but two, then the Russians would be the richest nation on earth.

But we all know what happened in the old Soviet Union, although some try to deny it.

With the United Kingdom being inexorably drawn into a communist EU super-state the Conservative Party has abandoned ever being able to implement true Conservative policies - freedom for the individual to pursue the course of their lives with minimal interference from the state.

The Conservative Party Conference was pathetic, Iain Duncan Smith and Theresa May decreed that the EU and the Euro will not be mentioned, they even condemned their predecessors for being nasty and destroying our quality of life.

What hope is there of the Conservative Party ever being resurrected?

If we stay in the EU is there any point in having a Conservative Party?

Why did the Countryside Alliance march in London and not in Brussels? And why did the Conservatives pretend to support it?

Over 90 per cent of the rules and regulations governing our farming industry are dictated by the EU's Common Agricultural Policy and does anybody really believe that France will agree to change it unless they get an even bigger handout? It doesn't matter if everybody in the UK wants to change it!

When businesses start to close under the welter of red tape and the pension crisis finally hits home, the true disaster of our EU membership will be revealed, but it will be too late.

Stephen Feaster,

Chairman, Ryedale Branch,

United Kingdom Independence Party,

Cropton, Pickering.

Updated: 11:13 Tuesday, October 29, 2002