THE truth sometimes hurts, and from Mr Spiteri's letter complaining that our farmers have derived benefit from EU grants (You Say, October 9) I seem to have struck a nerve.

But perhaps I did have a nerve in previously suggesting that only Britain and Germany are the net "givers" to the EU's coffers; we are certainly the major net givers but in 1999, for example, nine other member states also put in more than they got out.

The fact remains that Britain has been pouring into that black hole known as the EU up to £25m pounds a day (more than half of which, in 1999 at least, was handed over to the Spanish, Portugese, Greeks and Irish).

If our farmers had not received the grants referred to by Mr Spiteri, our net contributions would have been significantly greater.

It is a fallacy to think that by integrating more fully with the EU we can change anything "from within".

You only have to compare our number of MEPs with the total - and bear in mind if and when the number of member states is increased the total will be substantially higher, and the percentage of British MEPs will therefore be lower - to see that we will never have any clout in the European Parliament.

The EU has an uncertain future and will ultimately collapse, as happened with that other contrived union, the USSR.

Our safest bet is to get out of the EU as soon as possible and to consolidate the global economy we have established as an independent nation over several hundred years.

This would save a great deal of money that could be better spent on our own people.

IAN MORRIS,

UK Independence Party,

Malvern.