KEITH ROWORTH tells us “the British people have never given the establishment a mandate to relinquish governance of this nation to unelected bureaucrats overseas” (Letters, April 30). And quite right too.

But the idea that unelected Brussels bureaucrats simply dream and impose laws is a gross misrepresentation of how the EU works.

Yes, the bureaucrats are unelected, just like British civil servants and council officials. What matters is not whether they are elected, but whether they are electorally accountable.

Repeated use of the phrase “unelected bureaucrats” blurs that important distinction.

Brussels bureaucrats are electorally accountable, to a degree. Every EU directive has to be passed by both the European Parliament and the Council of Ministers (now confusingly renamed Council of the European Union).

Both of these bodies contain people elected by us, either MEPs or Government ministers.

Some of us would like to see a greater degree of electoral accountability, but anything looking like more Europe is anathema to many Brexiteers, who repeatedly tell us the EU is anti-democratic - an exaggeration if ever there was one - but won’t countenance the idea of a more democratic EU.

Alan Robinson, Lindley Street, Holgate, York