AS A former Royal Marines officer I shall be voting Leave in the forthcoming EU referendum.

I have been appalled by the negative, scandalous and downright deceitful Project Fear campaign waged by the Remain camp.

As far as the issue of defence is concerned NATO has been and will remain the cornerstone of UK defence policy, not the EU.

The EU is committed to “a common defence”. It is trying to keep their plans for an EU Army secret until after our Referendum. Yet again it has failed.

If we elect to stay in the EU it will undermine, not strengthen, NATO, and we are therefore less safe.

The Five Eyes Intelligence Alliance of the USA, Canada, UK, Australia and New Zealand, the world’s most powerful anti-terrorist network, will be weakened.

The UK government’s ability to determine where and when our Armed Forces are deployed would be further eroded.

This is the most basic and fundamental democratic function of any free nation-state. Finally it is in Putin’s interest to keep Britain entangled in a collapsing EU.

Britain’s Armed Forces and the UK as a whole deserve better than that.

And who in their right mind would want to be on the same side as Cameron, Osborne, Blair, Brown, Major and Salmond given their past and present performance?

Not me.

David Constance Major, Royal Marines Ret’d

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