Sir: The most important issue in this election is the
chance to get out of the EEC. The Labour Party alone offers this chance by a general election or referendum on new terms.
The alternative is to stay in the EEC melting pot, which is now warming up.
For example, Germany is pressing for more decisions to be made by majority vote, which would prevent our using the veto to protect our interests, The Times says that "It would be much easier for everyone (in Brussels) if Mr Heath got back and felt his flagging Europeanism strengthened by a new mandate" (February 8).
The only way to prevent this mandate is to vote Labour to preserve our freedom of action for the future, as Mr Enoch Powell guessed we might.
W. E. Bell 86 Woodgrange Avenue, London N12
Sir: What I have been predicting following his withdrawal as a Parliamentary candidate in Wolverhampton (S. West) has occurred. Mr Enoch Powell has made a strategically timed intervention, and to some purpose, in what he has dubbed a 'fraudulent' election. What will be the result?
The Labour victory I foretold on February 28 will be that much greater. And Mr Powell's continuing importance and rOle in public life will be assured.
Hinting at what he might feel obliged to do Mr Powell in a fairly, recent north country speech said that on the Common Market issue he would not rule out the possibility of feeling obliged to advise those who agreed with him to vote Labour. Additionally, knowing as he must that he has a substantial organised Labour backing in the country, he has also made clear more than once that he is neither a union basher, nor an endorser of the blame for our present plight attributed to the workers in industry and their leaders by Mr Heath and his cronies.
These two considerations are relevant to the background of Mr Powell's dramatic involvement — an involvement few political pundits foresaw.
Where will his intervention lead its operator? He will, I foretell, soon be Leader of the Opposition and a possible future Prime Min4ter. In the office he will hold he will have to rebuild a shattered and discredited Tory Party as well as becoming a constructive critic of a new Government with whom he will at least be able to work in much agreement about the conditions for remaining in the Common Market. I think also he will want to ensure that the trade union movement is given its rightful, honoured and vital position in determining how a fair society can be run in an overwhelmingly difficult economic situation.
Mr Powell can be assured that though he is regarded as wrong about many things he will be treated by a newly elected House of Commons, of which he would quickly become a member at an arranged by-election, as the honest, able, and consistent leader of a deservedly defeated Tory Party. T. C. Skeffington-Lodge 5 Powis Grove, Brighton
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