Ceri Jayes, of Lower Warren Road, Kingsbridge, writes:

Michael Sturdee, Gazette, April 8, misses the point that since the referendum in 1975 to remain in the Common Market there have been many treaties and developments, including the transition from European Economic Community to European Union, none of which were voted on or agreed in the original referendum vote.

The EU is evolving towards ‘ever-closer union’. The former president of the EC Jacques Delors said in 2012: ‘If the British cannot support the trend to more integration in Europe, we can remain friends, but on a different basis.’ Our vote on June 23 should be on whether we wish to go along with ­further integration or to leave and regain our independence.

Mr Sturdee implies that it is incumbent on the UK to change the EU, but he does not want to look at the statistics on how feasible that is. The following are indisputable and demonstrate that the UK cannot protect its own interests, let alone change the organisation: in 1973, two of the 13 commissioners were British – this has reduced to one out of 28; in 1979, 81 of the 410 MEPs, 19.8 per cent, represented Britain, whereas now we have 73 out of 751, 9.7 per cent. Even if all of the UK MEPs agreed on a point, we would be outvoted.

In 1973 we had 17 per cent of the vote in the European Council: this is now 8.2 per cent, 29 out of 352 votes, as each ­member state is allocated votes in proportion to the size of its population. Most areas of domestic policy are under the control of the EU and time and time again when we have tried to protect our national interest we are ­outvoted. Since 1996, when the records began, Britain has objected to 55 new laws in the Council of Ministers. All 55 have been defeated and all of those ­measures have become law.

The truth is that the larger the EU becomes the more power we surrender to it and the less influential we become.

In any given year, only three or four countries of the 28 are net contributors to the EU budget. The UK is usually in second place. Our debt pile is £1.6tr and growing.

Cutbacks are being made to our services in order to meet our daily EU membership fee of £55m. An example of those ­cutbacks was headlined on the front page of the Kingsbridge & Salcombe Gazette on April 8. Cllr Julian Brazil stated that Devon’s roads need £60m a year spent on them: the Government is spending only £40m-£45m. If we opt to remain in the EU, the stark choice could be: do we put up with potholes or introduce toll roads?

In 2004, 10 smaller countries, mostly poor Eastern European countries, acceded to the EU, joining for the financial benefits they could obtain. Countries lining up to join include Turkey, with 97 per cent of its land mass in Asia, Macedonia, Albania and six others. They are hoping to obtain financial benefits.

Turkey has a population of 77 million and when it joins will be one of the poorest countries in the EU. We currently contribute £16m-£18bn a year to the Common Agricultural Policy and get very little back. How will our farmers fare when all of the farmers from Turkey want to receive ­subsidies from that common agricultural policy fund?