WERE we really victorious in 1945? Certainly our two allies, Russia and the US, emerged as victors – stronger, richer and more powerful.

We, on the other hand, had to beg - literally beg - for a massive loan from the US to stave off total economic collapse.

It put us in a position that President Eisenhauer exploited ruthlessly when ordering us out of Suez in 1956, the most humiliating climbdown any self-respecting country has had to make in modern times.

Then, in 1961, Prime Minister Harold MacMillan was reduced to pleading tearfully with French President Charles De Gaulle to let us into the Common Market, as De Gaulle later boasted gleefully in his memoirs. And we all know what De Gaulle’s response was – De Gaulle the man we had sheltered from 1940-45, and whose country we had helped to liberate.

At the same time, Germany’s industry and economy were expanding exponentially, while here one factory after another was closing.

And now looking back from our point of view, hasn’t it been one long saga of failure, humiliation and deindustrialisation?

Finally, if you still think we were victors in 1945 just compare the present position of Germany with our own, and that should convince you of the truth.

Tony Kelly, Crook.