Peter Luff and Peter Nielsen were both in the Worcester News last week, supporting the EU, which they portray as guaranteeing peace and prosperity. And they are both wrong.

Mr Nielsen refers to the EU as a guarantor of peace in Europe, but even without the EU, war between west European states is no more likely than armed conflict between the US and Canada, or Australia and New Zealand.

He also talks about the European ‘social model’, somehow preventing a ‘race to the bottom’, but European countries are so diverse that there is no real model to speak of. There is a race to the bottom, but the EU is actually fuelling that, by encouraging mass immigration which undercuts working people’s wages in the more developed countries.

Mr Luff cites the UK automotive sector’s current success as evidence of the benefits of EU membership. France and Germany are both in the EU. The French car manufacturers are in serious trouble, while the Germans prosper. EU membership is clearly not particularly relevant, if it can produce such hugely different outcomes.

Mr Luff and Mr Nielsen are out of step with public opinion and reality. It is right that we should be friends and allies with our European neighbours. But the political élites within the EU and its member states are committed to ever closer union, leading to a United States of Europe. The project is pointless and beyond reform. It needs to be stopped.

Steve Davis,

UKIP, Worcester