MY first reaction on reading Brian Hanwell's letter ("Farming flourishes throughout Europe," September 1) was to ignore with contempt such an inaccurate letter.

However, to put the record straight I have had second thoughts.

He replies to my previous letter "Do we want to join Super State?" which he misquotes as "Have pro-Europeans led sheltered lives?"

He asks me to explain why I believe that if Scotland and Wales were to become independent states, it would be in England's best interest to withdraw from the EU and "pull up the drawbridge".

I don't have to explain, because I said no such thing!

I emphasised the illogically divergent ideologies of the UK's recent devolution with a democratically elected Scottish parliament and Welsh assembly with the contradiction of a centralised federal undemocratic super state of Europe, making no suggestion that Scotland and Wales become independent states. That is his fantasy and inaccuracy.

He asks why I think Europhiles must have lived sheltered lives. I didn't say Europhiles, I said himself. A conclusion drawn from the naivety of his letters.

With many previous correspondents to Your say challenging his Europhile views, misquoting and putting words into the mouths of his opponents is the last resort of someone on the losing side of an argument.

Paul Campbell