Well done Tim Ridgway for an excellent summing up (The Argus, May 12) of why we should be casting our votes in the upcoming European election.

I’m certainly not a beer-swilling chap called Nige but I do know the name of one of our European MPs, Liberal Democrat Catherine Bearder, and have in fact emailed her in the past, receiving a courteous and informative reply.

I voted in favour of joining Europe all those years ago and would do so again – BUT, like most people, I think the EU has a lot of serious faults which need correcting, in particular the democratic deficit described by Tim.

Whether we like it or not the EU is here to stay.

If we leave the Union then Europe will, in effect, be ruled by Germany. Do we want this?

Surely we should stay in the EU and, as one of its three biggest hitters, demand reform.

As non-members we would still be attempting to sell our goods to the EU while having no say in changing any of the bureaucratic idiocies we’ve come to despise.

On a recent edition of the BBC’s Question Time, Green MP Caroline Lucas gave some very cogent reasons for us remaining members and, of course the Lib Dems, the party of Europe, are very much in favour of working positively inside the system for improvement and change.

Even the Tories, though terrified of Ukip and their own euro-sceptic backbenchers, are in favour of reform followed by an in-out referendum, not an immediate withdrawal.

I’m going to be one of those few who will vote.

I want my EU representatives to work for me within the system to reduce bureaucracy, improve democracy and get the facts out to us voters rather than the myths beloved of Ukip and the right wing press – a very difficult set of tasks but surely worth fighting for.

Elizabeth Robinson, Queen’s Park Rise, Brighton