Letter: Toyota warning means Britain must choose to join Europe or join the Third World

Sir: It is with no surprise that I hear the news that Toyota are no longer going to invest in Britain if we do not join the European single currency (report, 30 January). This is the sort of thing I feared would happen if we stood shivering and complaining on the brink of full European membership.

The reason that so much Japanese industry has invested in Britain in recent years is that we are in the EU. If we do not commit ourselves fully and properly, Toyota and other Japanese companies will withdraw from this country, leaving us with a vast increase in unemployment and a greatly depleted manufacturing base, not to mention vastly reduced exports and a large (or even larger) balance of payments deficit. Cheap manufacturing bases are becoming available all the time in Eastern Europe. It is essential to make our membership of the EU full and solid if we are not to become a Third World nation.

PHILIP BAKER

Ottery St Mary, Devon