THE grand European project is dea. Its like the Norwegian Blue parrot of Monty Python fame, its still on its perch but its dead, it has expired.

The original aims were worthy, an attempt to ensure peace and co-operation on the Continent and prevent Germany ever again being all-powerful.

The former has worked to an extent but the latter aim has not, ironically because of attempts to bring about a federated Europe by imposing a common currency, a project thats been an abysmal failure.

Worse, the EU is now divested of all pretense of participation by its electorates and is run by a cabal of luminaries led by Angela Merkel, Nicholas Sarkozy, the president of the European Bank and a Smurf from Belgium.

It will require a lot of pain but the project needs to be unravelled back to a trading community, the principle on which the UK electorate voted for on the one and only time they were asked.

Oh, for a Churchill, or even a MacMillan, someone with backbone and the courage to show leadership. We need a message of hope and not the present "Be prepared to meet thy doom".

VJ Connor, Bishop Auckland