IT WOULD be great if John Tanner (May 12) would check his facts for once before putting pen to paper – but as usual he doesn’t.

He states that the European Union is democratic. Hardly! Consider:

* The European Council which gives direction to the EU, negotiates and ratifies treaty changes etc, has no elected representatives. The president is appointed.

* The European Commission initiates legislation and is responsible for the day to day running of the EU. The 28 commissionaires are all appointed, including Jean-Claude Juncker.

* The European Parliament is elected. Its powers compared with the UK Parliament are very restricted, given so much power is in the other two unelected bodies. Even the “democracy” of the parliament is somewhat distorted due to “degressive proportionality”. In other words a UK voter has one tenth of the influence compared with voters in certain other countries. (In other words it takes 10 UK voters to have the same influence as one voter in another country).

By the way, when did the UK voter agree to the transfer of his/her powers from Westminster to these unelected bodies?

PAUL WILSON
Kennedy Close, Oxford