In or Out?
One of the great themes of modern history is the clash between Anglo-Saxon Protestant nations and Latin Roman Catholic ones. The victory of the former allowed the development of those democratic values we treasure today, which Catholic absolutism as personified by Charles V, Philip II, Louis XIV or Napoleon Bonaparte would have stifled. Eurosceptics – not, as Professor Boyle alleges in “Fantasies of freedom” (23 April), psychologically disturbed Europhobes – fear that the EU as presently constituted reflects these continental undemocratic tendencies. They may well be wrong and if the UK were to embrace fully the EU, it might help defuse their fears. But rather than talking about “the Atlantic archipelago” or “the last redoubt of the English Reformation” Professor Boyle might help his case better if he endeavoured to understand the legitimate fears of the Eurosceptics and engage with them more sympathetically.

John Kentleton
Wirral, Cheshire