WITH regard to Paul Wilson's letter (Oxford Mail ViewPoints, December 2), about the European Union.

As I pointed out in my previous letter, when it comes to democracy, the EU puts the UK in the shade. The president of the EU Commission is selected by the elected members of the European Parliament, with the power of veto, for a period of five years.

That's much different from David Cameron being selected as Prime Minister by unelected Tory Party members.

Also, as I pointed out in my previous letter, if the UK had joined the Euro four years ago, during which the pound has fallen against the euro and US dollar by nearly 30 per cent, this would have resulted in all imports from the Euro-zone and commodities in general being correspondingly less, such as oil, gas, metals and even food.

That would have greatly benefited our manufacturing industries and the public in general during these tough times.

As for a referendum on the UK's membership of the EU, I would rather have referenda on the Government cuts to cover the banking bail-outs or our future participation in the occupation of Afghanistan.

But the way to do this in our “democracy” is to use your vote to elect a political party with a majority who would carry out such a ridiculous act as leaving the EU but I don’t see any of the mainstream political parties supporting the idea. That should tell you something.

As for the so-called Euro-zone debt crisis, currently being blamed for our own problems, you may recall that the UK’s current economic problems started previous to this and according to the latest available figures from the World Bank, the UK's gross external debt position is equal to 61 per cent of the entire Euro-zone.

R LEE (Mr) Burford Road Witney