I WAS intrigued that the foreign office minister Tobias Ellwood was asked to write for the Daily Echo to make his case for staying in the EU (Letters, June 13).

This follows a full front-pager from JPMorgan warning of job losses at the bank if there is a vote to leave.

On June 14 we had yet another article, this time from a Bulgarian student studying at Bournemouth University, recommending a vote to stay.

The thrust of their arguments seem to centre on the importance to the UK of the ‘single market’ as if it were some sort of utopia for trade.

It is a fact that we export more goods and services to non-EU countries already, whereas it is also a fact that the EU exports more goods to the UK than elsewhere.

A German minister has stated that the ‘single market’ would be closed to the UK in the event of a vote to leave the EU, but there would be a far more detrimental effect on EU exports, especially the export of German cars.

Tobias Elwood agrees that the “imperfect EU” needs to be reformed, in as much that it has become “less accountable, less transparent and less competitive”, but, of course, David Cameron failed abysmally in his attempt to address these important issues, and the minor agreements that were secured have yet to be ratified by all the other member states.

The EU has now become a form of dictatorship, led by five unelected Eurocrats, whose agenda cannot be questioned and which, as they published in June last year, is to form a political superstate, where national autonomy would be lost and the UK would become a country within.

Rather than an exit being a leap in the dark, we are already in a dark place and an exit would be an exciting leap into the light.

Brian Hammond

Ringwood Road

Wimborne