SIR - Anne Palmer (Worcester News, Saturday, October 21) is both unfair and inaccurate.

She claims that the EU is undemocratic because speeches in the Parliament can only last 90 seconds before the mike is switched off. This is nonsense. First, the real debate happens in committees where the main work is done, and where speeches can last as long as people have the patience to listen. Second, set-piece speeches in the main chamber generally last between two and five minutes, and are specifically limited to give more people a chance to speak. This is not a denial of democracy - it is a vindication of it.

She adds that my regular corrections of the steady stream of deliberate misinformation about the EU are because I am "afraid of losing my well-paid job". I have no such fears. As she well knows, I gave up a much better-paid job in industry to put something back into my home region and my country. I shall continue to correct the distortions from her and others until I cease serving as an MEP.

PHILIP BUSHILL-MATTHEWS, MEP Brussels.