NOW that our Prime Minister has returned from Europe with a fistful of failures, we can expect the referendum to be held as soon as possible so he can forget about it before the disadvantages of our continued membership of that discredited organisation get even worse.

The European Union will not take no for an answer: Denmark voted no to the Treaty of Maastricht; the Irish Republic voted no to the Treaty of Nice and no again to the Treaty of Lisbon.

They were all given second referendums and told to vote properly second time around.

France and Holland voted no to the European Constitution but instead of giving them second referendums they ignored the vote and changed the name of the European Constitution to the Treaty of Lisbon.

It seems likely, therefore, that if the people of the United Kingdom are patriotic enough to vote no to continued membership of the European Union, the EU will be ordering a second referendum.

In that case, David Cameron will be only too happy to comply. Then we will just have to vote no again.

David Cameron promised us that if he became Prime Minister he would hold a referendum on the Treaty of Lisbon.

He did become Prime Minister but he broke his promise.

He said that as the treaty had already been ratified by all member states, there was no point in holding such a referendum.

But the European Union did not wait until all member states had ratified it before putting it into effect.

On the same day the Irish Republic voted no to the Treaty of Lisbon, on the BBC Newsnight programme Kirsty Wark interviewed the European ambassador to the United States.

But she failed to ask him what he thought he was doing there.

The law whereby the EU may appoint ambassadors is contained in the Treaty of Lisbon, the very treaty Ireland had only just voted against ratifying.

This man was therefore taking a salary for holding a position when there was no such position to hold.

Always remember that Europe can snatch powers from member States any time they want: it says so in the Treaty of Lisbon.

Negotiations to bring back powers are therefore meaningless.

Sovereignty belongs to the people, not Parliament.

It is the responsibility of Parliament to defend and uphold that sovereignty on behalf of the people.

The Commonwealth, with its historical connections and cultural ties that Europe can never hope to match, has the potential to be a far superior free trading area than the European Union.

David Cameron should have been negotiating there, not wasting our time and our money by pussy-footing all over Europe.

It is high time the Europeans learnt how to fend for themselves without depending on British money to prop them up.

No matter how badly Europe may need us, we do not need Europe. Let us be rid of it.

– Anthony Reeve, Littledean.