STOP lying to us, Mr Blair, and admit that the European superstate project is well-advanced. In 2001 it will become apparent, despite the smoke and mirrors of the Government's spin-doctors, that we are losing more and more control of our own country.

Prince Charles has already let the cat out of the bag concerning the real nature of the so-called European Rapid Reaction Force: it is in fact intended to be a European army. The French, because they hate the Americans, have ensured that this army will be independent of Nato. Let me repeat what I said in this column a few weeks ago: this is the biggest political issue facing us, and it holds immeasurable consequences for world peace - or rather for world war.

It is Nato - not CND and certainly not the French army - which has kept the peace in Europe for 55 years. This is to say the peace has been kept by the overwhelming military might of the USA in a prudent alliance with the separate nation states of Europe. We could not and cannot defend ourselves against a resurgent and adventurous Russia if we tried.

And this is no idle speculation. Russia is in a state of turmoil in which there are clear signs of a desire to return to its old totalitarian ways. And the Americans have already warned that the proposed European Army could destroy the Nato alliance. It is scandalous that our security is being put at risk on account of French pique and the wider desire of the Eurocrats to build that superstate.

The European army would be useless against a major international threat. It has lately been revealed that our own forces are under-strength and there are faults with military equipment. These weaknesses will be further extended if absurd, politically-correct intentions to recruit disabled people to the front line are realised.

The European superstate is going to control every aspect of our domestic policy-making from our legal arrangements to our policing methods, from the rules concerning the operation of our pension funds to how we fix the level of our taxes. There has been recently one stark reminder of the fact that it is the EU which tells us at what level our taxes should be set.

One of the very few constructive acts by the Chancellor of the Exchequer was last November's declared intention to reduce VAT on church repairs from 17 per cent to five per cent. The Church of England is responsible for the upkeep of 40 per cent of all the Grade 1 listed buildings in the country and the imposition of huge VAT rates is financially crippling.

Moreover, the church gets no government money to look after the churches. So, for once, it's well done Gordon Brown who has obviously seen that everyone in the country can derive enjoyment from these beautiful buildings - tourists as well as the religiously committed - and so the disproportionate obligations of the churches should be reduced.

So guess what? The EU has threatened to disallow the reduction of VAT on church buildings. That is Frenchmen and Germans deciding how we order our affairs in England. So don't tell me that taxation policy remains under our control. It doesn't. And the encroachments will only increase following the Treaty of Nice by which we signed away yet more of our fundamental national rights.

Finally, may I suggest that Mr Blair stops using the word "modernise"? He came in on the modernising slogan and he has lived off it ever since. But the reality is that the trains don't run properly, the London tube is like something out of the Third World, hospitals - where 5,000 patients die each year because too many doctors and nurses don't wash their hands - are in crisis and schools are producing a nation of illiterates. If this is modernisation, Mr Blair, give me the 14th Century.

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