"Euro-MPs call for an immediate Government campaign in favour of scrapping the pound", 27 June 2000; [Blair sets deadline for scrapping the pound, 17 January 2000]; [Case against ditching pound is stronger than ever, says report", 6 June 2000].

 The above are typical quotes, the latter two headlines, from the Telegraph. 

Such blatant bias and appeals to one's emotions may be perfectly legitimate in political commentaries, but surely not in plain reporting.

 The pound is only under threat of being "scrapped", "ditched" or "forsaken" in the minds of those fundamentally opposed to adopting the euro in its stead.

 Nobody wants to "scrap" or "ditch" the pound, which has served us well, and to which we are all emotionally attached. But that does not mean that it may not in our best interests to give it up in favour of the euro.

 By appealing to our emotional attachment to the pound with rhetoric like this, euro opponents merely reveal the weakness of any rational arguments they may have.

 The economic advantages of being part of such a large common market with a common currency will be immense. And if we join, our democratically elected politicians will at least have some influence on the future fiscal and economic world climate, while if we do not, they will have none at all, and we will be entirely at the mercy of others' fiscal and economic decisions and interests.

 Britain is not just geographically a part of Europe, but historically and culturally as well. What is referred to as modern civilisation is almost entirely European, with American civilisation being the expansion and development of European civilisation in the rest of the Western world. 

Britain has a uniquely important role to play in Europe and the world, which it can only fulfil if its roots are firmly imbedded in the European soil from which it arose.

 Cultivating and extending national and local identity and self-determination, while at the same time, in those areas that demand it, moving closer to European unity, is what we should be debating and working on.

 I wish that the Telegraph recognise the historic challenge and take it up, instead of opposing it.