It appears the Courant’s remoaner in chief got ahead of herself in last week’s letters (Right Brexit?).

She seemed to assume that a No Deal Brexit was inevitable.

Ruth Bramfitt still seems to have missed the point about the result of the 2016 referendum.

She still uses the same arguments of ‘Project Fear’ used by the establishment; political, commercial and financial, that it would be a case of self-harm to leave the European Union.

That more than 17.4 million of us chose to take the risk was an indication that the argument was more to do with sovereignty than the economy.

She asks for feedback from those who so voted.

I was concerned when the 1992 Maastricht Treaty moved us from an economic union to a political one, with direction toward a federal state.

Four countries held referendums on this treaty; we did not, despite protests that we should.

Denmark was required to ‘think again’ before the treaty could be ratified.

This gave rise to UKIP who educated us to the structures, excesses and intent of this new organisation.

When the UK declined to sign the Schengen agreement or join the Euro, we were mocked as wanting to take the slow lane toward integration.

As I was involved in ferry crossings in 1995 when Schengen came into effect and resident in an EU country during the Euro transition, I took more than a passing interest in EU developments.

It only took two weeks for Belgian immigration to realise that retaining a border meant we made sure that everybody who travelled had appropriate documentation.

And as for the Euro? My Austrian boss now admits that we were correct.

Although nominally independent, the Luxembourg based European Court of Auditors is part of the EU and funded by the EU.

It has yet to sign off its annual accounts, but accounting procedures do allow ‘irregularities’ up to 4.5%.

In 2019 they managed to bring it to within 2.7%. Based on the UK’s annual net contribution that still equates to over £2.5 million of our money that the EU cannot account for.

Ruth Bramfitt asks what we mean by sovereignty.

To belong to an organisation that has five presidents, none of whom we elect, that creates laws in which we have little say, that has two parliaments – one for debate and one for block voting in two different countries, that has a court solely to protect the EU’s interests is not my idea of being in a sovereign state where those who govern are accountable to their citizens.

We are still European. We remain a member of the Strasbourg based Council of Europe along with 46 other member states.

JOHN MARTIN

Fourstones