Clif Moreton (British people aren’t stupid – Your Say Wednesday April 16) should be careful what he wishes for!

His ‘little Englander’ vision of Britain exiting the European Union will usher in a ‘dead end’ future for this country, with the inevitable loss of four million jobs to the economy, including local jobs in marine engineering and the UK marginalised off the North West coast of mainland Europe increasingly unable to exert positive international influence.

Depressingly, leaving would open the door to the extreme politics of the right: delusional fantasists who’d like to turn back the clock to the British Empire and all its associated divisive trappings.

I certainly don’t want to defend the LibDems and Labour who’ve listened too much to their spin doctors and focus groups and have singularly failed to promote all the positive advantages of being in mainstream Europe but Mr Moreton is wrong about the volume of EU legislation.

The fact is that most EU legislation is ‘gold-plated’ by the Westminster Parliament which papers like the Daily Mail then use as anti-European prop-aganda.

The EU never advocated straightening bananas. My Dutch friends often ask me why Brits have such a problem with being in Europe.

I honestly can’t answer them, other than to say that some fellow countrymen and women might be suffering the extreme effects of parochial insularity.

I sincerely hope that the likes of Clif Moreton are in a minority when they go into the polls in May.

Britain is integral to a strong Europe.

Richard Denton-White, Fortuneswell, Portland