IN the run up to the EU referendum let’s take a quick overview of what EU membership has done for us.

It has ruined our fishing industry, throwing thousands out of work and destroying their communities; bankrupted thousands of individuals and businesses when we joined the exchange rate mechanism; privatised and largely destroyed our rail and bus industries, also our chemical, car, aircraft, steel and shipbuilding industries (source: EU Directive 91/440 and others), along with the Post Offices, gas, water and electricity suppliers (EU Directive 97/67/EC and others).

In all, around one million British people have lost their jobs due directly to EU membership (source: Office of National Statistics), and of course the situation is even worse for other EU member states struggling with youth unemployment rates of between 25 per cent and 50 per cent.

It is working towards gaining control of our military and security forces under the EU Common Defence Policy to which we submitted when Gordon Brown signed the Lisbon Treaty.

It risks causing the privatisation of the NHS due to the TTIP, which will also see the introduction of lower safety standards, more job losses and the introduction of GM crops (source: War on Want).

When asked by the Independent newspaper why she was persisting with the TTIP in the face of mass opposition, EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malstrom said: “I do not take my mandate from the European people”.

That is the attitude of the 28 unelected bureaucrats who now make 70 per cent of our laws.

It forces us to accept unlimited and uncontrollable immigration. Immigration is not a problem in itself - we have always needed and welcomed immigrants.

The problem is that we cannot control the numbers now coming here, which are stretching public services in many parts of the country to breaking point. 

And, of course, as “Britain Stronger in Europe” boasts: “Immigration has kept wages low”. They think that’s a good thing?

This just scratches the surface of what the EU has done for us.

So why are people like Neil Kinnock, Paddy Ashdown, Tony Blair and John Major urging us to stay in? Simple, their gold plated EU pensions, worth hundreds of thousands of pounds each year, are at risk if they speak out against the EU.

Are we to regain control of our destiny and recover the power to make our own laws for the benefit of our nation and our people?

Or are we to allow EU membership to continue destroying everything that makes this country a great place to live in?

That, in a nutshell, is the choice facing us on June 23. It’s a “no brainer” isn’t it?

David Jaques

By email