OUR political establishment is determined to sell us out to Brussels.

The European project is built on undemocratic attempts to subvert the will of peoples of Europe. This referendum is important because for the first time the British people are getting a democratic say on EU membership. We have one opportunity to win back control of our country from Euro elites.

* The EU undermines British democracy. Because the European Commission initiates legislation EU-wide, which is then rubber stamped by the European Parliament, we are in the bizarre situation of non-British representatives making laws affecting the UK, and British representatives helping to make laws affecting other member states. This is a matter of principle – the UK should be governed by a democratically elected British Parliament whom we can remove if we want to. The only way to achieve this is by leaving.

* Leaving the EU will not stop Britain from trading with Europe. Iceland, Liechtenstein, Switzerland are not EU members but have access to the single market through the European Free Trade Association. The UK is a huge market for many EU member states, so it makes little sense for European exporters to cut us off. It was a requirement the UK vacate its seat on the WTO when we joined the Common Market.

* Leaving will allow the UK greater trading freedom as we can pursue wide-ranging bilateral trade agreements with other economic powerhouses more easily.

* Waste and fraud. The official error rate in the EU budget is 4.6 per cent, meaning £4bn to £5bn is misspent or fraudulent. In Greece an EU-funded sewerage network is unused nearly a decade after being built as nobody connected it to homes; £1.24m was spent building a computer to “invent and evaluate fictional ideas” which came up with “what if there was an old snake who found a sword he could use instead of a rock for smashing scissors?”; there was £760,000 for a “gender equal” cultural centre never built, and a €764,000 green-energy project had a 90-per-cent error rate in its accounts. EU auditors are unable to confirm that accounts give a true view of the situation. Would we tolerate this lack of transparency in our national or local governments?

* Many EU laws are discussed and drafted in informal meetings between the “trilogue” of the European parliament, European Commission and EU Council. No public records are published of these meetings.

* The UK does not need the EU to be relevant on the world stage. Much of our clout does not come from EU membership. We are one of five permanent members of the UN Security Council, a member of the world’s most powerful military alliance NATO and a key player in the IMF and World Bank. The EU’s Common Foreign and Security Policy is toothless and requires unanimity before new stances are adopted. The UK is the fifth largest economy, fourth most powerful military and a global centre for international finance. The EU is credible because states like the UK and Germany are members, not the other way around.

* There can be no fair, controlled immigration policy while the UK is an EU member. Because of the EU free movement of people policy, member states are unable to place meaningful controls on EU migrants, meaning they may only set a limit on non-EU migrants able to enter the country. The UK has turned away skilled immigrants this year while powerless to turn away non-skilled migrants.

* The EU has done little to ensure peace in Europe. It is argued the only reason why Europe has largely been at peace since World War II is because of the EU, but this ignores the fact that it was NATO, formed in 1949, and the American nuclear umbrella – not the EEC formed in 1958 – which were responsible for stopping an East-West conflict during the Cold War. The EU did little to stop the 1990s conflicts on its doorstep in the Balkans. If the EU disintegrated, war between European states would be no less unlikely.

* The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is a gigantic EU subsidy for the agriculture industry and is 40 per cent of the EU budget. Because the UK has a relatively small agriculture sector (0.6 per cent of the economy compared with 3.6 per cent in France) the CAP costs the UK. Outside the EU we will have a scheme designed in Britain for British farmers, not a scheme designed in Brussels for French farmers. The UK contributes £6bn to the CAP budget, getting back £3bn. The Common Fisheries Policy ensures we are permitted to catch less than 20 per cent of fish in British waters, 80 per cent given away to the rest of Europe. We, a once great seafaring nation with the greatest trading seaborne empire the world has ever seen, are reduced to importing fish to satisfy rising domestic demand, with fish imported caught in what were our waters and subsidised by our taxpayers.

* The Greece crisis demonstrates for the EU project to work, there must be complete political and economic integration. Only through passing more powers to the EU Commission, can the union overcome efficiency problems. Further integration is not something many people in the UK want. Free trade and the common market are good but we must not let our country be absorbed into a “United States of Europe” where European interest trumps British interest.

A vote to leave is not a vote for the status quo but for stability, normality and less change. Leaving will mean when change does occur it will be decided by a government elected by British people. Such changes are reversible – national governments can reverse bad decisions. The EU and its unelected, unaccountable institutions are hell bent on ever closer integration and indelible, unchangeable diktats forced on its people. A vote to remain is a vote for an uncertain future over which we have little or no control.

Malcolm Bint

Grassroots Out East Hampshire