BARRIE Dobson (You Say, December 23) appears not to have read my letter thoroughly or with thought.

He has misread the main point in that yet another EU country's prime minister has been found to be corrupt and, in this case, jailed for 24 years. Does he want to ignore this fact?

My letter did not, as he states, compare the EU to the USSR. It simply said that the EU will eventually go the same way, by splitting into its original constituents - but at unthinkable cost.

I would suggest that Mr Dobson, not myself "expresses a lack of knowledge in 20th century history".

Three of the countries joining the EU are not, and were not members states of the USSR, but are independent countries, formed in 1918, invaded in 1939 by the USSR, regaining their independence in 1991, following the failure of socialism in the USSR.

The union then dissolved. No former member states of the USSR have applied for EU membership.

Governments

If being Neanderthal means having the wish to retain one's own sovereignty, one's own governments and one's own currency and physical powers, then yes, I am Neanderthal and proud to be so.

Mr Dobson tells us that six of the EU countries are in many ways superior to the UK. He is at liberty to spend 100 per cent of his time there should he wish to leave our inferior UK.

Mr Dobson's last point is about pensions, about which I have written in the past.

Our Government is only now beginning to inform us of the enormous pension problem and I would once again ask, that how enormous would it be had not Mrs T broken the link to wages? Just look at France and Germany.

Mr Dobson does not deny, for he cannot, that our membership of the EU has cost us billions every single year bar one since we joined. It will continue to do so with the cost getting ever worse as more (poor) countries join.

E F SHOWELL, Worcester.