L.A. O’BEE’S poetic panegyric in adoration of UKIP (Letters, August 18) is also no more than a glorification of militarism and power that on our own we no longer possess.

If interested in verse I suggest he reads John McCrae, Wilfred Owen, Siegfried Sassoon, A.E. Houseman’s A Shropshire Lad.

They and their generation paid a price far in excess that our membership of the EU costs.

His letter acknowledges that they are a “one issue” party; leave the EU. Frightening, in my view, that beyond that issue they have nothing to offer in regard to the major issues we face.

It suggests blind faith to Mr Farage to create a better world by chiromancy or necromancy, I suppose.

Though he claims quite erroneously that I consider the EU to be the reason for a sustainable peace and also that we live in a “fair society”, its existence and influence in that way must be more positive than negative.

The wars in the Middle East he points to are indicative of internecine conflict between a set of disjointed nations. If anything, they highlight the value of consensus rather than conflict.

This is, of course, an anathema to UKIP members who would prefer, in an ever more globalised society, to pursue a policy of isolationism.

Yet if we leave the EU we shall find ourselves in this globalised world with less influence and having to seek agreements in far off fields with no guarantee of success.

Surely it is a contradiction in terms for L.A. O’Bee to scoff at a “world of peace and harmony”and advocate that we leave the biggest and most successful cooperation of nations on the planet.

Although I’m sure we could tolerate it if it was under the old empire system led by Britain.

D R SMITH, Southampton.