If there was one particular instance in time which has resulted in the UK’s present economic demise it was March 2003 when, it has been claimed, Tony Blair agreed with a media magnate that in return for media support for the illegal invasion of Iraq the UK would not join the Euro zone.

That was a venture that we were led into under false pretences. The late great Robin Cook knew that only too well and he stated in his resignation speech that Britain was being asked to embark on a war “without agreement in any of the international bodies of which we are a leading partner”.

Mr Cook knew very well that the justification for the invasion was fictitious. So did the Germans, the French and the Russians.

The question remains, why didn’t a much higher number of our own MPs not realize that?

Just a few moments checking Bush and Blair’s account of the evidence given by an Iraqi defector, Hussein Kamel, against reality, should have immediately sounded alarm bells.

It was at that point when the UK turned its back on the European Union, and went along with the USA’s attempt to control the Middle East oil supplies, and a failed attempt to protect the US dollar as the world’s reserve currency. Iraq had, in 2000, started selling oil in Euros instead of dollars.

Since 2003, both the USA and the UK have been reliant on borrowing heavily to cover wars, trade and Treasury deficits – the vast majority of this coming from countries with surpluses such as China, Japan, the OPEC members and even Russia. The reason for the credit crunch is that this source of cheap money dried up.

I wrote to David Cameron in November asking him why the vast majority of purchases of US Marketable Treasury Bonds came from the UK, and why, when every other country was reducing investment in the USA, the UK was in fact increasing. His reply was that it was because of London’s position as a world banking hub and the historical links between the British and American banking sectors.

Well, it seems we have firmly tied a line to the Titanic; little wonder then that the UK is forecast to suffer most from the downturn than any other EU country.

It is the European elections on June 4. This country desperately needs change, but I have this nasty feeling we are going to change in the wrong direction.

If you have access to the Internet, I suggest you type the words “UKIP” and “fraud” into your search engine. That should tell you all you need to know.

So while nations are still queuing up to join the European Union we are likely to elect a bunch of ‘loony tuners’ intent on taking the UK out of the EU, or being disruptive, at a time when we would benefit from taking a more positive attitude.

R Lee, Burford Road, Witney