Michael Sturdee, of Culver Park Close, Kingsbridge, writes:

The original aim of setting up what has now become the European Union was, after two devastating wars, and indeed centuries of conflict, to ensure peace in Europe. This peace has held, and we have together advanced in prosperity. Trade has been the key: as we are interdependent, war between us becomes almost unthinkable.

In order to trade freely and fairly, the EU has had to build up a bank of laws, ratified by the European Parliament, ­without which trade would be severely compromised.

As with all agreements and treaties between nation states, this has meant we have all had to surrender to the European Court of Justice, the remit of which is to ensure EU laws, a degree of sovereignty. There is a similar arrangement with the World Trade Organisation, of course.

Britain, like almost all nations, has multiple treaties, which have all to an extent diminished our sovereignty. Nato, for instance, stipulates that an attack on any one nation should be considered an attack on all.

The EU would likely play hardball in the Brexit negotiations in order to deter other countries from doing the same. We would still wish to trade with the EU freely, without import barriers, and to do so we should have to abide by the EU laws, whether we like it or not. Disputes would still have to be settled in the European Court of Justice.

A constant theme in the Brexit camp is that they want ‘sovereignty’ to return to our supreme court. It just wouldn’t happen over trade disputes with the European Court of Justice: ‘sovereignty’ would not have been regained.

In addition, we would forfeit all of our influence over the development of new laws. We would therefore not merely be back to square one if we left, but one square behind that. Thus the whole exercise would have been to no avail and very damaging.

There is, of course, another European court: the European Court of Human Rights. That is quite separate from the EU and was set up after the Second World War, largely at the UK’s initiative and currently with 45 members. Leaving the EU would not affect our status in that court.

There are those who would answer by saying from their hearts that they do not care about any negative consequences and that it would be a price worth paying. They just want Britons to be governed by Britons.

Judging by the shenanigans of this and almost all British governments in my adult life, I am not persuaded that we could do any better on our own, and believe that such a move would be highly irresponsible and unfair on the British people.