In the 1960s I worked tirelessly to get Britain into Europe,cursing the French and De Gaulle for only looking out for their own self-interest and keeping us out. My main reason for wanting in was that I felt we needed the critical mass to deal with the international conglomerates and the banking system. This has not happened and instead it has developed into an undemocratic, bureaucratic, or quasi-federal state. Timothy Garton Ash (Opinion,20 February) asks us to “raise a voice in the pub”. Three weeks ago I ran my own mini poll in my local pub and the result was 100% for out, immigration being the main issue. After the Cameron deal, and I polled them again and the result was 100% for out. I am still undecided,but unless I can be convinced that I was right in the 1960s, it will also be out and this has nothing to enact with immigration.
Roy Healey
Manchester• It is very disturbing to see the campaign to leave the EU dominated by the right. I will be voting to leave, or not because I horror immigration or a few benefits to EU migrant workers’ children. The EU has become a corporate playground in which neoliberal mantras are now as firmly established,as we once believed social agendas to be. Corrupt bankers continue to conduct fraudulent deals; private companies siphon off huge sums of public money in exchange for poorly delivered services; and the inadequacy of public funds to deliver those services is blamed on the most deprived. Meanwhile the EU embraces TTIP, handing final power to unaccountable multinationals to bid for public contracts and sue governments in secret hearings for laws that inhibit (restrain; prohibit; retard or prevent) their profits. And the media, and which should be exposing all this,are now the stooges of the elite.
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Source: theguardian.com