Letter: No choice but to dismantle the EU

It is a mirror image of the late Soviet Union, a quasi-dictatorship run by unelected persons who have immunity from prosecution, and will go down in history the same way, as a profound political error.

The EU is now 42 years old with 28 member countries and a total population of over 500 million. A tiny fraction of those millions were given the option of whether to join the EU. Even fewer had a choice to join or reject the euro. The leaders of the 18 eurozone countries lied about their financial status in order to join, seeing the prospect of millions of euros going their way.

Take the example of Ireland, a net-gaining member from day one. For every £1 the Irish paid into Brussels it received £9 in return and it was not until Ireland's economy collapsed in 2007-08 that we in Britain learned that the Irish minimum wage, retirement pension and dole payments were way above those paid to us in Britain, a net paying country from day one.

Reflect on the fact that the economic/fiscal experts from eurozone have spent seven years now trying to solve the problem – they cannot and will not but lack the common sense to accept the fact and do the obvious – dismantle the EU. Abolish the hundred thousand regulations that add costs to all economies, keep the free trade but close the open borders.

Bob Wydell, Oswestry