Readers' letters - May 6

What does our Government pay to be a member of the EU Club? I’m advised that it is around £50m each day – which is £350m per week and £1.4bn per month.

Would it not be plain economic sense not to be a member of this club, and for our Government to use this money for the benefit of ourselves not others? For example, build hospitals and schools and, more importantly, pay those employed within these services decent wages.

Even more important, our school leavers could benefit from Government-backed, traditional apprenticeships.

We need our young to serve real apprenticeships before we lose all of our skills as a country.

I do believe this would create jobs, and not cost jobs, as the ‘Stay In EU campaigners’ would have us believe.

I don’t hear the In campaigners reminding us of the 500,000 (and rising) jobs it has cost us being in the EU, for example, our decimated fishing and farming industries, and, more recently, a medal-making firm in Birmingham which has just gone bust.

Now our military and Queen’s Honours medals will now be made in France! This has come about because of the unfair competition from EU countries. We play to the rules whilst others play to their own interpretation of the rules.

Mr Cameron has insisted he has got us all a good deal with his re-negotiations.

Absolute rubbish!

He’s not even got back what Tony Blair gave back, what Mrs Thatcher had originally got from the EU when she was Prime Minster.

There are other relevant points.

When was the last time the EU’s accounts were audited and signed off as being correct? Answer? More than 20 years ago.

How much contribution to the EU goes towards the pension funds of unelected bureaucrats?

I am advised it is around 46 per cent. How many billions have been wasted?

We always have a trading deficit with the EU, therefore we need the EU less than they need us. Big business and other non-EU members want us inside the EU for their benefit, not ours.

For David Cameron to say we are better off in the EU is disgraceful. All he does is pour out doom and gloom, and is not fit to be our Prime Minister. We are in the top 10 of the world economies, and are quite capable of standing on our own two feet and making our own decisions. And therefore being in control of our own destination.

Brian Robinson via email 


Be aware of hedgehogs

This week is Hedgehog Awareness Week. Hedgehog numbers are falling and so they need all the help they can get. This year the British Hedgehog Preservation Society (BHPS www.britishhedgehogs.org.uk) is highlighting the dangers posed to hogs by cutting machinery in particular garden strimmers.

Hedgehogs have been scalped or lost a leg because of these pieces of equipment. Please check long grass before using any cutting machinery to ensure you are not putting a sleeping hog at risk.

Most people seem to know now, but please do not give bread and milk to hedgehogs.

They love the taste of milk but are lactose intolerant and will get severe abdominal pain if they drink much milk.

There are many other issues surrounding protecting the future of hedgehogs.

You can sign a petition online.

Go to https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/121264. So far, 31,000 people have signed on line but 100,000 signatures are needed by August 11 .

Ruth Yates,

Address supplied