FOLLOWING the latest episode in the soap opera that our continued membership of the European Union now represents, it is time for this disastrous period of EU integration to be brought to a close.

After the debacle of the Lisbon Treaty, it is difficult to know where this leaves us in the great EU “debate”.

There seem to be three distinct standpoints:

1. Acceleration of the Euro socialist super-state project and total surrender of sovereignty favoured by Labour and the Lib-Dems

2. A renegotiation of terms and clawing back some of our law making powers which is the unlikely mess that now represents Conservative “policy”

3. Withdrawal from the EU and renegotiation of our relationship, favoured by UKIP and probably the majority of voters

In place of a proper debate with real facts, we have had a generation of soundbites and scaremongering, along with the peddling of the myth of inevitable disaster following any withdrawal from the EU.

Those Europhiles who are interested in genuine debate might please wish to answer the following questions:

Why do nations such as Norway and Switzerland prosper outside EU membership?

Given the swelling size of our national debt, why is the UK the second largest EU contributor behind Germany?

What possible logic is there in throwing dead fish back in the sea due to the EU quota system?

Why haven’t EU accounts been signed off for a decade or more?

What further excuse is there for the Common Agriculture Policy?

Finally, before Councillor James Alexander and others write these questions off as those of an extremist or a Little Englander, I am neither. I travel and do business regularly in Europe, but am seriously concerned with the hijacking of the original EEC concept.

MJ Smith, Main Street, Elvington.