Mr Quince wrote about MPs voting on an EU referendum (November 4).

It is a question of whether an MP would vote on their own priorities, their party priorities or those of the people they represent.

From several sources, the people’s priorities were said to be the economy, health care, education, services focused on people’s needs, unemployment, war involvement, crime, the environment and immigration.

In none of those sources was UK membership of the EU given as a British priority to be addressed by the Government.

Lord Ashcroft , former Conservative Party treasurer and large donor, is reported to have asked of Tory MPs who voted for the referendum if they knew of the people’s priorities.

He is reported to have said the priorities were anxiety about the economy in terms of growth and jobs, and that voters cared more about the NHS than MPs might realise.

Lord Ashcroft concluded Tory MPs voting for the referendum suggested to voters that the Conservatives were far away from the British people’s priorities.

In voting against the referendum, Bob Russell, Lib Dem MP for Colchester, showed he understood and supported the people’s priorities in these times of economic hardship.

The cause of the poor state of the UK economy is not due to EU membership.

The cause is due to past governments’ deregulation of UK banks, excessive reliance for the UK gross domestic product on banks and financial services, and far too little of the GDP based on manufacturing.

The consequent failure of UK banks devastated the UK economy.

The last government’s policy of economic growth based on borrowing left massive private and consumer debts that are now preventing economic growth, as is the failure of the private sector to employ the thousands of public service employees losing their jobs due to the austerity cuts.

If there is to be a referendum on EU membership, it needs to be preceded by fully informing the people of the benefits and costs of membership, including the many intangible benefits.

So far, only the disadvantages of EU membership are being publicised.

Bob Curry
Abbeygate Street
Colchester