Unsure EU future

Torquil Macleod (Letters, 15 December) asks if anyone knew what they were voting for in the 2016 EU referendum and suggests the future outside the EU is uncertain.

He implies that the future inside the EU is certain but no one can foretell the future either inside or outside the EU, however we can look back at 40 years of being a member and suggest that remaining will give more of the same.

The EU now is greatly expanded from the small club the UK joined in the 1970s, albeit that closer political union was a principle aim then also.

Perhaps now the EU is closer to becoming the United States of Europe than at any time since its formation. This will present a dilemma for those EU states not using the Euro currency.

The UK has endured the Common Agricultural Policy, the Fisheries Policy and been subject to a stream of new regulation, some, such as water quality for the good, and others less so, such as the need to impose import tariffs on goods from certain parts of the world, labour regulations of which the Working Time Directive is perhaps the best known.

The EU’S record on spending members states contributions is not worth defending either eg the pensions payable to employees and MEPS – Nigel Farage included!

The aim of Brexiters is to rid the UK of these detrimental aspects and move on from there.

After 40 years of EU membership the UK is deeply in debt, with a continuing balance of payments problem financed by more borrowing and the sale of assets such as airports, water companies, banks and private sector companies eg Skyscanner. This cannot continue but when in a hole the mantra is ‘stop digging’.

BENEDICT BATE

South Clerk Street, Edinburgh