A letter to the Editor of the Daily Telegraph which was published on 17th January 1985.

Mr Richard Fenning’s letter (Jan. 16th) about VE day commemorations is typical of a spirit in this country which disapproves of any British success.

Behind the polite smiles of international summits and vapid talk of European co-operation, which Mr Fenning commends, is the hard fact that Japan and West Germany, the defeated enemies of 1945, constitute today as mortal a threat to the survival of this country as they did in 1942.

The manufacturing trading deficit which this country suffers from, and which is the fundamental reason for both the special weakness of the pound and our specially high unemployment, is in turn entirely attributable to the vast imbalance of our trade in manufactures with these two countries.

Until people, including politicians of all shades of opinion recognise that behind the niceties of diplomatic convention we are engaged in a ruthless war for economic survival, with these two countries in particular, nothing will come right for our country.

Only an attitude which accords national economic success the same primacy accorded to military success in 1914-18 and 1939-45 will arrest the shameful slide of the last 25 years.