Sir - The standard of debate nationally in the EU referendum is abysmal.

It is not helped by both the PM and Chancellor refusing to debate properly. They are our leading political figures.

Both of them should be criss-crossing the country fearlessly debating with all and sundry to help people on our nation’s future.

Here in Worcester, it’s greatly to the Cap n Gown landlord’s credit that he is hosting a series of debates. He deserves our thanks.

I challenged Prof. David Green, our university Vice-chancellor, to a debate and it would be great to see our local MP Robin Walker arguing in front of a much larger audience. Sadly, the good prof. says there’s been a student union debate and that’s it.

But I challenge him again. Surely that’s what a university is for.

He and the Bishop of Worcester should defend, with some evidence, their wild claims that leaving the EU would threaten peace. The EU causes suffering in developing countries by putting discriminatory tariffs on their exports.

This promotes poverty and unrest. The EU’s combining of a trade agreement with Ukraine with attempts to draw it into the EU political orbit helped to cause civil war.

So much for a risk of conflict if we leave the EU.

Francis Lankester

Worcester

Let’s regain sovereignty

Sir - It is vitally important that we, the British people, grasp our final chance to regain our sovereignty, by voting to leave the EU on June 23. Any organisation which has failed to have its annual accounts signed off by the auditors for the past 18 years (and the EU is one such) is not one to which we should belong.

Until the laws of this country are again under our own control we can no longer rule ourselves and can no longer control our borders. If you want your future to be in our own hands then vote Leave!

If you want to add economic incentive to leave then consider the relative prosperity of two of the major non-members of the EU with the UK.

Measured by gross domestic product (at purchasing power parity) per capita - generally accepted as a measure of prosperity - the figures for 2014 are as follows: UK - £31,945; Switzerland - £59,075; Norway - £67,142.

The figures need no further explanation from me. Vote to Leave.

T Munslow

Lower Broadheath

PM is talking rubbish on EU

Sir - I was reading the Mail and it said if we stay in the EU another 5 million could be here by 2030. We can’t let that happen, there’s already a baby boom by the migrants we already have here, and Mr Cameron and his followers are saying we need to stay in to keep us safe. Has it kept France and Brussels safe? No. He is talking rubbish.

We’ll end up losing our culture and could cry for our ancestors who fought in World War I and II. I know what my vote will be.

A G Macdonald

Worcester

Hard to know who to trust

Sir - What a contentious argument the forthcoming EU referendum is proving to be and although I have been following both camps of the arguments, I am none the wiser as to who to believe.

Whenever the government makes the case for Britain to remain in the EU, the Brexit camp claims Britain will do better outside the EU but they have not told us how yet.

The Brexit camp seems to value our country’s sovereignty above all else, therefore they would not be prepared to bargain our sovereignty for a lucrative export contract that happens to secure British jobs.

If border control means Britain will bring down the shutters on foreign nationals who wish to come and work in Britain to contribute and better themselves; where would we find the cheap labour to do all our menial jobs?

I guess British nationals would find it equally difficult to apply for working abroad with prospects of enhanced salaries.

The money Britain saves on quitting the EU membership will in all probability be spent on either maintaining our trade links within the EU or to suck-up to non-EU countries to try and win export contracts; the global economy is already pretty much spoken for by the larger trading countries of China, the United States and Europe.

In the absence of any factual and undeniable evidence, in the June referendum I shall probably follow my gut instinct and cast my vote accordingly.

Mrs J R Price

Worcester

We didn’t ask for his views

Sir - I read with interest David Barlow’s reply to my letter of May 5, 2016.  He says that for evidence of the “narrow, stop-the-world-I wanna- get-off isolationism” and harking back to an imaginary past which informs so much Brexiteering we “need only look” at my letter.

 I repeat the claim that President Obama has no right to offer his opinion that the UK is better off as a member of the EU.    I fail to see that President Obama’s remarks amount to anything more than the USA’s self-interest.    Genuine friends wait to be asked for their opinion.  Equally responsible PMs and MPs refrain from scaremongering which people can readily see through and thereby lose trust in these so-called leaders.

 We shall have our say soon and if we can access truthful information on the subject I feel confident that the UK will make the best decision, the most important since 1945.

Wendy Hands 

Upton

There are too many MEPs

Sir - Before 23rd June I would like to see the job description of an MEP together with the respective salary/weekly hours/amount of annual leave and expenses allowance which goes with this situation.

After watching Jeremy Paxman’s TV programme, there appeared to be far too many members in the debating chambers (as there is in our Houses of Parliament and Lords) and they all appeared to be having a really jolly time.  The Welsh rep. said she was there because the people of Wales voted her there - but didn’t come up with a valid reason for her presence.

I just wonder why this body of people can’t sort out the immigration problem?

R. Roberts 

Clifton  on Teme

Saga started before the EU

Sir - US President Truman supported a plan for a European army under a European Defence Community and led by NATO dating back to 1950, the Korean War, the re-armament of Germany and the threat of communist aggression.

The plan failed to get off the ground and the USA has since been the biggest contributor to NATO.

Today, Donald Trump, among others, has objected to the American economy having to borrow from China to continue to defend a freeloading Europe. President Putin is seen as our problem, and is on an entirely different scale to the former Soviet Union which was a US threat.

Europe is having to rethink defence, but this is about a complex saga which began long before the EU or its predecessors.

Derek Fearnside

Worcester