Is the EU really to blame for our troubles?

EUROSCEPTICS complain about the EU’s lack of democracy and failure to deal with the migrant crisis. Many blame it for our lowwage, low-productivity, low-skill economy. But it wasn’t the EU that failed to train an adequate supply of skilled manpower and forced employers to recruit from abroad. It wasn’t the EU that let British engineering and manufacturing jobs go to the wall because of a lack of investment and political dogma, unlike in Germany and France. It wasn’t the EU that gave priority to financial services and deregulation, a major cause of the financial crisis of 2008. It wasn’t the EU that privatised our utilities and allowed many of our major companies to fall into foreign ownership. And it wasn’t the EU that invaded Iraq, leaving the EU to deal with millions of migrants in fear of their lives because Blair and Bush were obsessed with regime change. And it’s a bit rich of the Eurosceptics to complain about a lack of democracy in the EU when the UK has an hereditary head of state, an unelected House of Lords and a Tory Government with just 36.9 per cent of the UK national vote.

BRYAN D. PRESCOTT, Caerphilly. WOULD anyone believe that the current invasion of moths is directly related to the activities of the eU? in 2008, the european Commission issued the Registration, evaluation and Authorisation of Chemicals directive, which sounded the death knell for mothballs. Over the years, i can’t remember any publication, news item or broadcast highlighting the dangers of mothballs. this is a perfect example of how deeply the eU can penetrate into our everyday lives and shows the hold it has over our democratically elected parliament. thousands of these directives are issued every year. One of them has led to the closure of some of our post offices. Others caused the furore over refuse collection and wheelie bins, and another prevented us from dredging rivers to avoid flooding. Why do we rarely hear of or see these directives? Our parliament doesn’t want us to see them because it knows they would cause an uproar. All the changes we experience in our daily lives can be connected to a european directive in one way or another.

DEREK J. BUNTING, Thornton-Cleveleys, Lancs.