Letter: Britain slow to take its place in a 'multi-speed' Europe

Sir: Thank you for the published interview with President Mitterrand and your leading article (26 May). Living here in this region transmanche, we can on most reasonably clear days see the home of our European near-neighbours. We shop in their shops, eat in their restaurants and holiday in their countryside and resorts. Yet I continue to feel puzzled by the pronouncements of our politicians, who would have us keep those Community partners at arm's length.

I could understand such caution 50 or more years ago, when only a privileged few took holidays abroad or had the early television service. Now, nearly a quarter of a century since man first travelled to the moon, am I really supposed to continue to regard my neighbours with constant suspicion?

Yours faithfully,

PETER MEDWELL

Broadstairs, Kent

29 May