RON Hill (letters, September 5) has missed an important aspect of democracy.

For any election/referendum to be valid, the preceding campaigns must be held on a level playing field.

We now know that the Leave campaign cheated by exceeding the lawful spending limit by at least ten per cent.

If translated directly into votes, this would completely reverse the referendum result.

It is clear that the leave campaign did not think this was trivial, since they deliberately overspent in a highly covert manner.

An additional imbalance arose from the pre-campaign spending by the Farage campaign.

The Electoral Commission was so concerned about the source of funding that it has passed the matter over to the Police.

The results of a democratic vote can only be respected, if the campaigns refrain from outright lies.

It is clear that some newspaper letter writers still believe the £350m a week lie.

Mr Hill also reproduces the lies about the Control exercised by the EU Commission.

Like the UK Civil Service, the Commission can only take measures, which are permitted by EU law, which is determined by the Council of Ministers and the EU Parliament, both ultimately elected by popular democratic vote.

EU Law is in general limited to laws creating a level playing field for EU Trade, now including indirect cost arising from paid holidays, working hours and environmental protection.

There are many cases, which the EU Court of Justice has ruled are beyond its competence, eg penal law and domestic voting matters.

The EU is not controlled by Germany and France.

Where, occasionally, matters are decide by majority vote in the Council of Ministers, the UK has a similar weighted vote to those countries.

In practice the EU works wherever possible by consensus and historically, the UK has only very rarely been outvoted, as it usually (98 per cent ) agrees/has crafted the new laws.

The UK has opt-outs from nearly all aspects of any tendency to a superstate (single currency etc.) as do some other EU members.

PETER REDMAN

Dorchester