We didn't say crisis an EU issue

Mr Helmut Winkler accuses UKIP of trading in misinformation and half truths by presenting the problem at Northern Rock as an EU issue. We did no such thing.

The failures of Northern Rock are indeed part of a worldwide banking crisis and poor management.

What I did say in my previous letter was that EU laws made the Governor of the Bank of England's job far more difficult and contributed to the subsequent run on Northern Rock.

Mervyn King, a man of great integrity, reported to the Commons Select Committee that he had been hampered by (EU) red tape in dealing with the crisis.

In particular he had been concerned that he had to make his support of Northern Rock public under the Market Abuse Directive and that he may have been accused of illegal state subsidy or support in bailing out this bank.

These two bits of EU legislation brought about delay and publicity, both fatal in such a crisis. Now you can believe him or not, but that is the truth of what he believed.

The European Central Bank does not have to account to any elected bodies and can act with impunity and without such considerations. As I said before, it is time we governed ourselves again.

Jonathan C Carr, UKIP North Shropshire, Shrewsbury