Madam,

I fear Mr Louvet is deluding himself if he thinks the EU can be reformed. Has he forgotten that David Cameron tried to get reform and got precisely nowhere?

The only reform you will get out of the EU is greater political integration, the scrapping of vetoes and the creation of a single country governed from Brussels in which, were we to remain, we would be one voice among 28 or more, so would have absolutely no control over our own affairs at all.

The reason we cannot and will not get a deal from Brussels is that we want the EU to be an association of independent countries who make and enforce their own laws and have control of their own affairs but trade with one another on favourable terms, rather like the Commonwealth or indeed the original EEC which we joined in 1972.

The EU will never agree to that because a substantial number of other 'member states' would want to leave on that basis. They have to ensure that after we leave we are in a disadvantaged position compared with the remaining member countries, hence the refusal to agree any meaningful changes to Theresa May’s deal.

We seem to have completely lost sight of the fact that leaving the EU is nothing to do with economics. It is about whether we run our own show or are run from and ultimately by Europe.

I hope when he is talking to “our youth” about the EU, Mr Louvet will highlight these issues and not dwell on alleged financial irregularities and economic scaremongering.

Yours etc, Alan MacMaster, Barmouth.

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