Letter: Euro paean

Sir: As a retired and widowed travel man who worked for many years on the Continent and still mourns his Italian bride, I guess I am an instinctive European who just cannot understand the Euroscepticism of many Brits (or English?) and continues to be appalled by it.

Then I read Ian Jack's beautiful story of Uncle Jack and the scene near Westminster Abbey on Armistice Day (7 November), which you were inspired to place on your front page. A very moving story which somehow gave me seriously to wonder: is this the reason why the result of the future referendum on the single currency is far from a foregone conclusion, despite the overwhelming evidence in favour of it?

Is there an instinctive hostility in this land towards all Continentals born of past wars, which is manifested right through the social structure even to the louts who shame us at football matches?

The prospect of the forthcoming referendum war worries me. It's going to be bloody, and the antis are going to pander to those prejudices in our people in ways we cannot yet imagine.

ERIC SUTHERLAND

Chipstead, Surrey