While Mick Venour's mathematics may be incorrect (Letters, December 16), I suggest Louise Martin (Letters, December 19) removes her rose-tinted glasses and takes a real look at this once-proud land that has been reduced in stature because of the EU.

I voted to join the Common Market but I certainly did not vote to become a puppet state of the European Community.

When have we had peace? Has Ms Martin heard of Bosnia, Chechnya, Afghanistan and other places?

Prosperity and jobs? We lag a long way behind other European countries in prosperity, due to the amount of money given to them after 1945 by the Labour Government.

Cheaper prices? You must be joking - take a trip across across the Channel and see what the real prices are. We are being ripped off in this country by retailers who charge 100 per cent and more on cost for any item they sell, plus the iniquitous taxes we have to pay.

Deprived areas? Brighton and Hove will soon be one, with the diversion of council funding to the North.

Neil Kinnock and his wife rake in more than £500,000 as joint salary as EU representatives.

When we traded with the British Commonwealth, we had friends who stood by us in thick and thin. Who will stand by us now if we needed them? No one.

Last but not least, see how pensioners lag behind in so-called prosperity stakes.

When council tax is increased next year, it will be more than 50 per cent of their winter fuel allowance gone, while MPs give themselves big hikes in salaries and pensions.

Never mind - we have an election soon. Then some heads might roll.

-B T Cook, Elm Drive, Hove