Mr Wingfield in his letter last week accused me of "manufacturing" statistics to make my case despite my having explained in my previous letter, kindly published by the Sutton Guardian, how I arrived at my figures.

After quoting my figures and my method I can expect criticism of my methods and conclusions.
Being accused of "manufacturing" statistics is not what I expect. Surely it would have been better for Mr Wingfield to give us his figure, if he has one.

However, it appears more likely that Mr Wingfield is one of the many EU fanatics who promotes membership of the EU without having the faintest idea of how much it costs us.

Mr Wingfield is also incorrect when he says my "objective is to cease all trade with Europe".
At no time have I advocated that the UK should not trade with the EU after leaving. However, since joining the EU to 2009 we have accumulated a massive balance of payments deficit with the EU of -£913 billion (at 2012 values).

For the same period our accumulated balance of trade with the rest of the world was a surplus of +£245 billion (at 2012 values). These figures show that the EU is not such a good trading partner it is cracked up to be.

In addition, we have allegedly not enjoyed a surplus of trade in goods since 1981.

So it took just 8 years in the EU to reduce our competitive edge in manufacturing.

I firmly believe that after leaving the EU we can build up more profitable trade with the rest of the world on mutually agreeable terms as an independent country.

However, Mr Wingfield is to be congratulated for introducing Orwell’s 1984 into the discussion as this correctly sums up precisely the kind of existence the EU entails.

Perhaps he should have included Orwell’s Animal Farm as well which, if my memory serves me correctly, also includes the remark that "all animals are equal, but some are more equal than others".

Jeremy Wraith
Sutton