Dej vu.

Byline: Elizabeth Davenport

I DISAGREE profoundly with Chris Moncrieff Behind the Speaker's Chair,May 13) when he exculpated Clare Short because she dared to voice a growing concern of a majority of other-minded thoughtful people in or outside Parliament. This chiefly relates to the growing and powerful elite surrounding Blair,not unlike a similar elite around Bush in the US.

This is a company which has strong roots in the economy and could ruin it at will if prepared to do so.

Are we really going their way without even a murmur,let alone no sight to a democratic referendum on the European constitution which has been granted to other members of a now-tamedCommon Market?

Have we,indeed,arrived at a stage of dej vu whereby Britain is going to double bac

on history; of enforced starvation in the late 19th and early 20thcenturies by the opposing majority who refused to work 18-hour days inappallingconditions,including the employment of children as young as six in factories, upchimneys,frightened to death,and in horrendous tasks in quarries, which malformed them for life?

Not quite. Then it was a different agenda - working slavishly to keep a minority in comfort. The power of the press is no longer an influence for change,but at least the people should have a vote to say yes or no to joining this behemoth. Are they really to be denied a choice? If that is so, then the past will merge into the future which will be fully deserved by them.

Elizabeth Davenport,Woolton