YP Letters: It's time for Remainers to answer some questions on the EU

IT amazes me how Remainers are allowed to challenge and pressurise Brexiteers as the UK takes its bold step towards independence, and yet are never required to provide answers to the problems that would face us if we remained part of the EU.

Some Remainers still seem to think that staying in the EU represents some kind of status quo which involves no risk whatsoever. In reality, remaining in the EU means being on a slippery slope towards a United States of Europe. Remainers are so bought into the idealistic utopian European project, where the UK would become a non-country, a mere region, that they are blind to the risks.

Over the years there have been many EU treaties (none of which were ever subject to referendum in the UK), each of which has eroded national sovereignty, taking us further towards the EU’s ultimate goal of federalism. But this European project is not based on democratic principles.

Take the distribution of MEPs. The minimum number of MEPs for each EU member state is six. So that means that a country like Luxembourg, which has a population of 576,000, has the same number of MEPs as the whole of Yorkshire, which has a population of 5.3 million. Also, the Council of Ministers provides an equal say for each one of the 28 member states, even though many states (small and large) contribute very little towards the EU’s budget.

With each treaty, Qualified Majority voting is introduced for more issues which means that smaller countries, and net recipients of EU funding, can outvote the major contributors. The UK is the second-biggest contributor. This is the tail wagging the dog – it’s undemocratic and unacceptable.

The EU Parliament, made up from these undemocratically allocated MEPs, is not like a normal parliament. It can only rubber-stamp legislation, and it is very rare that it blocks any directive. The directives come from the European Commission, which comprises political appointees from each country and who we cannot vote out. These Commissioners have included such failed UK politicians as Peter Mandelson and Neil Kinnock.

It is high time that Remainers are put under more pressure to explain how we would, for instance, protect our environment and protect our security, while allowing freedom of movement. Freedom of movement means uncontrolled immigration which would put more pressure on our infrastructure and services.