Personally I think that a lot of the animosity shown towards the EU and its institutions is based on misunderstanding or downright ignorance. If the referendum is a chance to dispel some of this then bring it on – I just don’t have much faith that this will happen. I think we’ll sleepwalk into a costly EU exit, largely because of the problems mentioned.

The most popular boys name in Peterborough last year was – – – – -drum roll – – – Mohammed –now tell me that is right.

That’s mainly because many Muslims like to name their sons Mohammed. It isn’t the most popular name because a majority of children are named that, it’s because a sizeable minority consistently choose it and the majority choose something else.

Their presence at the D-day anniversary is an affront to everything we fought for. Publicly unelected, autocratic dictators should have no place in modern society.

And yet none of you who decry the EU seem to be pushing for an elected Head of State for the UK.

As for Barrosso, the President of the European Commission is voted for by the EU Parliament, which is pretty similar to how the PM of the UK get his/her job as well. We don’t vote for the PM directly either, but again you don’t see any complaints about this. Makes me think that people who don’t like the EU use the ‘non-democratic’ criticism of it very selectively.

Come to that, nor do people in the US vote for their President directly, it goes through the electoral college which means that you can win the popular vote by theoretically tens of percent and still lose the race for the White House.

The UK head of state is a constitutional monarch with, effectively, no power whatsoever. A figurehead.

The UK Prime Minister is a democratically elected member of the House of Commons and the as the leader of the largest party the Prime Minister of the country.

So I see no relevant comparison with the EU model there.

We do not trade with Europe, we trade with individual member countries. The EU as an “entity” does not trade in anything.

Our leading export partners in 2012 were:

Germany, US, Netherlands, France, Switzerland, Ireland and Belgium

Our leading import partners in 2102 were:

Germany, China, Netherlands, US, France, Belgium and Norway.

You’re avoiding the point a bit about the monarchy – if you think that democracy is the most important thing for the EU then why not the UK? Even the top jobs in the EU have to be approved by elected MEPs or elected heads of government. In the UK voters don’t get to have any say about who government advisors are, UK ambassadors, civil servants, military leaders, or even who our Head of State is. Most of these have to get the OK from our representatives, the same as lots of EU officials.

The UK Prime Minister is only democratically elected by the people of one single constituency in the UK, and they only hold their office because they lead the single largest party in the UK House of Commons. The vast, overwhelming majority of the population had no say whatsoever in who became these party leaders in the first place – it’s very much indirect democracy.

And yes, we trade with the EU states individually, but agreements to trade with the EU are made by the EU as a whole, so considering it as an entity is very relevant. If we left the EU we would have to negotiate with the EU as an entity, not individual member states.

Re 16

How can the trading nations that comprise the EU be our major market when we now export less to them than we do to the trading nations that comprise the rest of the world and who now buy a larger slice of our exports than the EU?

Yes, I agree, the nations that comprise the EU are an important market for our exports but they are not, according to the ONS, and using your words: ‘our major market’.

I concede that the gap between what the EU buys from us and what the rest of the world buys, seems to be variable according to which stats you’re prepared to accept.

This comment plus that at #10 is my reply.

One further point; When the euro collapses, countries will still continue, almost seamlessly, to buy and sell – they have to, to exist. The euro will rapidly become an irrelevance as nations revert to familiar and tested currencies.

John, as a single entity the EU is our largest trading partner – this isn’t a difficult concept to grasp.

Is it just me or do a lot of those shots of the F-313 make it look like a scale model? IIRC even the mockup from a few years ago was a pretty questionable example.

Have there been any announcements about a UK V-22 purchase? There’s a small article to that effect in today’s Times.