EUROPE: THIS week Michael Ancram, Shadow Foreign Secretary, was giving reasons for opposition to the European Constitution. Quite rightly, he spelt out the dangers to our status as a sovereign nation if this pernicious document is inflicted upon us.

This constitution which will, at a stroke, remove the powers of self-governance from nation states and hand control to an unelected, unaccountable and largely corrupt bureaucracy, is still insultingly referred to by Tony Blair as "a tidying up exercise".

Mr Ancram completely demolished this pretence and defined it as a blueprint for a federal superstate, which is exactly what it is. He then stressed the need for a referendum, which Mr Blair resolutely refuses to grant the British people.

However, having exposed the dangers and stressed his party's outright opposition to the Government's determination to render us powerless to control our own affairs, Mr Ancram underlined why the Conservative party will remain part of the problem rather than offering a solution.

The UKIP not only recognises the dangers of the EU constitution but has consistently warned of the threats to our freedom that the EU represents (and has always represented) and states categorically that the only solution is total withdrawal. - Dave Pascoe, Press Secretary, UK Independence Party, Hartlepool Branch.

EVOLUTION

ATTACKING creationism, Eric Gendle (HAS Sept 8) claims almost all thinking people are evolutionists.

Well, actually, creationists are thinking people too and what they reject is not the idea of evolution itself but Darwin's theory of it: the idea that the wonderful harmony and complexity of nature are due to blind chance operating over millions of years.

That's like saying that if you kept on chucking scrap metal for long enough into a junk yard it would eventually assemble itself of its own accord into an aeroplane.

It's a theory that makes no sort of sense, intellectual or moral. Nor, should it be said, does science itself make any sort of sense without the Bible. - T Kelly, Crook.

DIET

BEYONCE Knowles displays the worst kind of self indulgent stupidity in boasting of how she lunches on six slices of tomato and four slices of cucumber - and nothing else (Echo, Sept 1).

She admits she's a natural fat person just dying to get out, yet she goes through "agonies" to keep her stomach flat.

Who cares if her stomach is flat or round? Sadly, her fans do and they could be led into dangerous kinds of fasting to copy her.

If Ms Knowles is a natural fat person, why doesn't she just eat normally and sensibly and revel in her natural shape? What a difference it would make to the pop/showbiz world if the so-called stars abandoned the dangerous cult of being wafer thin?

If their size matched that of their followers, think how many young lives, ruined by unhealthy diets, would be saved?

Young girls especially would not feel driven to starve themselves and undergo mental anguish in the vain attempt to look like people such as Ms Knowles. - EA Moralee, Billingham.

FOOD SHOPPING

I RECENTLY asked an assistant in my local supermarket about what the labels meant on the meat products. I saw labels saying free range, farm assured, organic, freedom food and many others.

He was not able to help, so I though I would try and find out myself. In doing so I discovered a little booklet that other readers might find of use. I am sure they are as confused as I am.

Compassion in World Farming have a Compassionate Shoppers Guide that explains how to tell from the label whether an animal has been kept in a restricted environment and if it has been given suitable food and bedding materials. - L Pattinson, Bishop Auckland.

UNITED STATES

J COOK (HAS, Sept 6) states that I am anti-royal. This was the only thing he got right in his recent contribution to HAS.

He also said that I was anti-American which is simply not true.

My wife and I lived in the US for several years and found the average American to be as decent as anyone else.

However, I am opposed to the present ultra-right wing US administration which is as guilty of spreading terror as those they condemn.

I have always acknowledged the US contribution in the 1939-45 war.

Finally Mr Cook states that I am against everything else - what rubbish!

If I had to write down all the things I agree with I would fill a whole page in the Echo. - H Pender, Darlington.