Madam,

On behalf of Plaid Cymru, our MP in Dwyfor Meirionnydd, Mrs Saville Roberts, continues to claim that European funding is the salvation of Wales.

Where does this money come from? Do you think it comes from the generosity of countries as hard-pressed economically as Spain (21 per cent unemployment), France (in rural depression worse than for genera-tions), from the aspirant Eastern European members whose workers flock to us not vice versa? The truth is it comes from us - it is OUR money, UK money, being recycled through European bureaucracy.

The UK pays more into the EU than it gets out. Not Wales - Wales gets more than it pays in. But then Wales gets more out than it pays into the UK too, and the Conservative government, through its unjustly maligned Chancellor, George Osborne, has introduced a funding floor for this parliament to guarantee Wales 115 per cent of spending in England, as a better way of reinterpreting the Barnett formula.

Wales gets £500 million subsidy a year from the EU. Most of this is OUR money, from the UK as the strongest economy in Europe. We pay, as the UK, £55 million a day to belong to the EU club; it would only take nine days in a year of that daily subscription to give that to Wales ourselves if we weren’t in the EU, and, as Wales is one-20th of the population of the UK we could probably fund more help too proportionally. But where does this money come from? It comes from a strong UK. Plaid Cymru has long abandoned its aspirations for an independent Wales.

Wales will only flourish as part of a larger grouping and it benefits from membership both of the UK and EU. And by far the more important grouping is the United Kingdom. Whatever your view on the Referendum, surely everyone wants Wales to flourish and succeed so that it won’t need any subsidy at all from Europe or the rest of the UK. Subsidy should not be a permanent way of life for a healthy economy.

And to that end, it looks clear to me that Conservatives deliver better economic results for the UK than any of the alternatives on offer who cry out for spending but have no idea how to earn the money first.

Yours etc

Neil Fairlamb

Tan-y-bryn, Fairbourne.(Conservative candidate for Dwyfor Meirionnydd in last week’s elections)