With regard to Paul Wilson's letter (Oxford Mail, November 8) in which he describes the EU as being undemocratic and a dictatorship.

Surely it’s not necessary for me to remind him that here in the UK, while the House of Commons is democratic, we have a totally undemocratic institution called the House of Lords.

Some of their members sit in the chamber simply because of an accident of birth, others who are ‘chosen’ by political parties are able to keep their position for life.

In addition we have an unelected lifetime Head of State, whose offspring are able to interfere with democratic processes, particularly Prince Charles. Further the UK is the only country in the EU which doesn't have a written Constitution.

Compare that with the EU, which has the European parliament which is directly elected by EU citizens, the Council of the European Union which consists of representatives of each EU government, chosen by each individual governments depending on their specialty. Finally the European Commission, consisting of one member from each EU State for a 5 year term.

Not unlike the UK Government's Cabinet who are not directly elected by the people but appointed by the Prime Minister.

As for his references to economic problems in the EU; as a percentage of GDP the UK had: the highest deficit in the OECD in 2010; the highest external debt as a percentage of GDP of any major industrial country in the world and a gross external debt of $8.981 trillion. That’s 15 times higher than Greece, 3.45 times higher than Italy and 6.5 times higher than Spain.

Yet Mr Wilson believes the UK is flourishing outside the Euro.

The fact is the UK is surviving for the moment due to Quantitative Easing, £275,000,000,000 created out of thin air in the last two years to pay our way in the world, which explains rapidly increasing inflation and the fall of the pound against the Euro further adding to inflationary pressures.

So my advice to Mr Wilson is to pop down to your local high street bank and open a Euro account, even if the country has missed the boat, it doesn't mean you have to.

Mr R0 LEE, Burford Road, Witney