Letter: Septuagenarian replies to letter on EU and the young

He seeks to "deduce" (that is, come to a conclusion based on known facts) that I "know little" about the consequences of staying in the EU for the rest of my life, nor, he asserts, do I "seem inclined to find out".

An indisputable fact is that Mr Wydell knows nothing about my knowledge or otherwise of the institutions of the EU. I may also infer from his use of the phrase "the rest of his life" that he has "deduced" I am a contemporary of the young people I seek to defend, otherwise how could I be so ignorant? As it happens, I am well into my 70s and clearly remember, when I really was a young person, the genesis of what is now the EU, such as the work of Robert Schumann, the institution of the European Coal and Steel Community and the Treaty of Rome in 1958.

In the course of his letter, Mr Wydell defends his blanket assertion about the ignorance of young people, which he is happy to repeat, by citing another of his "facts", namely the pro-EU propaganda "pumped" into our schools, colleges and universities for 40 years.

I am bewildered, as in the 35 years I spent as a teacher and educator, the matter of the EU barely figured, if at all, certainly not in the propagandist terms he claims.

I may not be able to read but I would be obliged if Mr Wydell could distinguish between mere assertion and argument based on verifiable evidence and not dress his viewpoints in emotive language, such as the use of the word, "pumped."

But I would say that, wouldn't I?

Paul Pascoe, Shrewsbury

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