IN the run-up to the General Election there has been a wealth of muddle-headed slogans bandied about. One of them is “A Vote for UKIP is a vote for Labour”. This is arrant nonsense. Nothing could be further from the truth.

UKIP know what they want.

They want to get out of the EU.

The Tories think they know what they want. They thought they knew before the last election - the words “cast iron guarantee” were to be heard on occasion - but they didn’t know when.

So any UKIP MPs that are elected are not likely to detract from the support for a referendum, that is unless the Tories all turn about face and vote against, in a fit of pique. After all, if no outright majority is achieved, then UKIP would be a more fitting set of bedfellows for the Tories than the Lib. Dems.

In any case, as 75% of our legislation is handed down from Brussells, does it matter all that much? Why bother to meet at Westminster all that often? They could well be not a half-time government, but a quarter-time one.

So could we please get back to running our own affairs, as we did before we got caught up in this “Europe”

madness?

We know how to do it; our governmental system was being formed back in the Middle Ages, at a time when the European mainland was not even sure which country was which, let alone how they were going to govern themselves.

Why do we, after hundreds of years of running our own country, now need a bunch of foreign governments to tell us how?

Trade with the other European Countries would go on as usual as it does with the rest of the world. After all, we form trade agreements with China, but we don’t let them dictate to us on Human Rights.

If we do want to make common cause with a large group of nations, we are still in the Commonwealth. Our Queen still needs to consult them when she wants to change the rules of accession to the throne, but it is harder now for them to get into the UK than for a criminal or gangs of East European housebreakers.

What is more, we don’t pay millions of pounds per month to belong to the Commonwealth.

So, if the Conservative Party wants to take the wind out of UKIP’s sails, they should stop blathering on about “renegotiation”,which they must know is out of the question, and give us the chance to get out while the going’s good.

TONY WARD

Lawrenny