Insecurity, austerity and growing extremism in the EU

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/04/insecurity-austerity-extremism-eu

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Italian prime minister Enrico Letta's jitters about Eurosceptic parties becoming more powerful after next May's European elections overlooked the far more ominous fact that most of these parties are on the extreme right (Europe must unite to counter sceptics, 1 November). They are gaining in influence and support because economic insecurity is rife across the continent and is easily channelled into blaming immigrants for domestic problems.

Free-market, pro-European governments have introduced austerity and weakened domestic businesses and employment through the economic warfare inherent in the free movement of goods, money and people. As such, they have nothing to offer the unemployed and the insecure, except more of the same. People will only return to supporting "Europe" if it changes its end goal such that it is able to protect and rebuild national and local economies.

The present open market obsession of the treaty of Rome must be replaced by a treaty of Home, giving priority to the diversification of national economies, rather than endless austerity and ruthless competition. It is the only way to reduce insecurity and people's readiness to vote for extremist parties. Colin Hines Author, Progressive Protectionism (forthcoming), East Twickenham, Middlesex

• Enrico Letta says the EU must unite against sceptics, but I fear the moment has passed. Nationalism appeals to human nature because it offers us all a recognisable home among our fellows. Europhiles have had more than 60 years to express their project in terms that offer the same thing bigger and better, but have failed to find a formula that speaks to the heart. Rather than embodying the promise of a shared European homeland, the EU haunts the public consciousness as part pipedream, part nuisance. Against the warm familiarity of a more restricted view of kinship and geography, there is no contest. Roger Woodhouse Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands

• Enrico Letta calling for a great battle between "the Europe of the people and the Europe of populism" would have made Bertolt Brecht proud. The best he could do was "Would it not be easier to dissolve the people, and elect another in their place?" The EU's democratic deficit is no accident but a deliberate policy to ignore the actual people of Europe and act in the name of an abstract concept, "the people", which just happens to want what the elites think they should want. Roger Mortimer-Smith Hampton, Middlesex

• I'm pleased the CBI admits the benefits of being in the EU "significantly outweigh" the costs. Half of our exports go to the EU and, according to the CBI, EU membership is worth £3,000 a year to UK families. Yet rightwing Tories and Ukip are pushing for an exit. I hope the fact our main business group is wholeheartedly in favour of staying in the EU will be recognised in Downing Street. Derek Vaughan MEP Lab, Wales

• Can the Vince Cable who says the EU is a good deal for Britain (Comment, 4 November) be the same one who catastrophically underestimated the value of Royal Mail in its privatisation, leading to a huge financial loss to the Treasury? Mabel Taylor Knutsford, Cheshire

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