PEEP behind the curtain at last week’s story of unexpected demands for £1.7 billion from the EU and a different story emerges to the one grandstanded by the participants.

We are invited to believe in a bolt from the blue, but every report the UK Treasury produces about the health of the British economy will contain a section entitled financial implications, as do all reports prepared for the ruling executive at a city council.

Among those financial implications will be the fact that EU membership fees are pegged to the performance of the nation’s economy.

Many professional organisations peg membership fees to salary or turnover; trades unions, business associations, etc.

There is nothing new or unusual about this.

George Osborne will have understood this when signing off reports that finally included data on sections of the hidden or illegal economy that had previously been ignored, and when signing reports praising economic growth that suggested that we were doing better than the rest of Europe. And it stretches credibility to believe that David Cameron knew nothing.

The only thing that is remarkable is the attempt to pretend that this comes as a surprise and our willingness to fall for it.

Christian Vassie, Blake Court, Wheldrake, York.