ALTHOUGH most of his letter concerned voting systems I was intrigued by Ewen Simpson’s comments on the EU.

Firstly if he has lived in Europe he must know that apart from access to our markets and our financial contributions we are, due to history and geography, viewed by other EU members as peripheral to mainland Europe.

Indeed since the BREXIT decision the hostility shown by EU officials such as Jean-Claude Juncker only serves to reinforce just how superficial our relationship is with Europe.

Lack of tariffs on goods is often mentioned as a reason for staying in the EU, but surely this works both ways as it is advantageous to those who sell goods as well as those who buy goods.

So post BREXIT why would the EU want to impose tariffs on British goods when we import more from the EU than we export to the EU?

Although the reasoning is questionable, Churchill may very well have recommended close ties with our neighbours to avoid a repetition of two world wars.

However, as he died in 1965 long before we joined the EEC, I do not think he could have envisaged that what would be seen as a mutually beneficial trading agreement would turn in to today’s over-arching EU, presided over by Germany.

Potential travel problems are often cited by ‘remainers’, quoting the need for visas etc, so can they explain how the Brits managed so easily to travel throughout the world before we joined the EEC?

Mr Simpson asks for concrete examples where the EU has had a negative effect on their lives.

Many feel that allowing such essential services as rail, water, electricity, airports, banks etc to be owned and run by European companies is not in their best interests.

Nearer home we have the prospect of HS2 which many feel will have an adverse effect on their lives, but as the proposals are part of the EU’s rans-European Network, first proposed by Jaques Delors, the UK government had little option but to set the plans in motion.

Possibly post BREXIT, despite the millions which have already been spent on the project, it will be cancelled.

Mr Simpson points out that most brexiters are in the ‘prejudiced’ 50 plus age group, but could their views stem not from prejudice but from being able to remember how things were before we joined the EEC?

Mabel Taylor Knutsford