Letter: What Europe would lose if Maastricht were rejected

Sir: One of the best things about the last election result was the drubbing it gave to the credibility of opinion polls; they have thankfully been keeping a low profile ever since.

In my opinion, polls contribute to the superficiality and distortions of election campaigns, and I am impressed by the French law banning the publication of poll results in the week before the referendum, so that people can make up their own minds on the issue independently.

Today you publish on your front page the headline: 'Poll finds most French say 'no' '. A headline that will, thanks to the Independent's efficient distribution system, be displayed on news-stands throughout the larger towns and cities of France.

Do I take it, then, that you are of the opinion that the French should be influenced by (possibly spurious) information as to what their fellow European citizens are thinking?

Yours faithfully,

JEREMY POLMEAR

London, N19

18 September