MADAM,

While I agree with Mat Davies (The absurdity of Brexit, 15th June) that Britain was right to stay out of the Schengen Agreement and the Eurozone, I fail to see that these are triumphs.

If they are wrong for Britain, they are wrong for other member states too. Indeed, Hungary and Belgium have recently broken their Schengen obligations, while Greece and Spain are suffering horribly within the Eurozone.

Past history shows the direction of the EU to be downwards. In 2005, everything seemed rosy: EU membership had doubled in ten years, from 12 to 24 states; the Euro was launched; Mark Leonard boasted that ’Europe will rule the 21st century’; Will Hutton proclaimed that ’a European superstate is eminently buildable’.

Today, such hubris is being pursued by nemesis. As well as the euro bailout, Greek crisis and Schengen crisis, we’ve seen a dodgy deal done with Turkey over immigrants, the rest of Europe is lagging behind UK economic growth rates, and friction with Russia has led to plans for a European Defence Force - why, when we already have NATO?

Boris Johnson has not ’lost’ the economic argument, as Mat Davies claims. All predictions, on both sides, are purely speculative.

Iain Crawford

(Monmouth)