JUNE WARNER says “pet EU ranters” (please can we leave that sort of insult out of it?) should be pinned down to listing provable benefits the UK has derived from being in the EU (Letters, June 17).

Mere opinions and vague assertions not allowed. Her words, not mine.

Why should the burden of proof lie with the pro-EU camp? Well, June, you threw down the gauntlet. However much you might believe we’d be better off outside the EU, I bet you can’t prove it.

The leave camp say we can’t control immigration while we’re still in the EU. Does that mean immigration will be controlled if we leave?

I doubt it, because non-EU immigration is more than half the total, even though the EU doesn’t prevent us from controlling that.

Will the economy suffer if we leave the EU? My guess is it probably will. Most economists say so.

Will leaving the EU “give me my country back”? Will I feel I have have more control over my own life if we leave the EU? I doubt it.

Herein lies a big problem. Neither side can prove anything, so opinions and vague assertions dominate the argument on both sides.

It’s far too easy to make wild and exaggerated claims, without fear of being proved wrong. It’s disgraceful that debate on such an important question has sunk so low, and it seems most of us are heartily sick of it.

Alan Robinson, Holgate, York