THE European project never included ordinary people; in fact, those moving the project forward deliberately excluded anyone outside of their elite circles.

Initially its intention was to smooth trading between member countries with little indication of political ambition.

Then came the ‘Single Market’ ‘Maastricht’, Amsterdam and finally ‘Lisbon’ and the spectre of the super-state became undeniable.

Every country with a constitutional requirement to hold referendums rejected plans of the Brussels based bureaucrats. All eight results were ignored.

I can’t imagine anything that proves more clearly that the EU is anti-democratic.

Those rejected referendums shout out that the political elite is leading the EU project in a direction ordinary people don’t wish to travel.

Nobody supporting the EU can offer a compelling case to remain; the EU has failed to deal with any of the issues dominating debate.

While our government was forced to cut public spending the EU actually increased its spending, totally unaffected by the world’s financial crash. They have another budget ‘black hole’ of £20billion and it’s guaranteed that we will be required to contribute even more.

Unemployment is, on average, twice as high as UK levels with youth unemployment at 50 per cent or higher across southern Europe.

The EU still doesn’t have a policy for migration and Europol admit there are over five thousand jihadists freely roaming around Europe.

The common person has been ignored from the start; remember none of the establishment parties wanted you to have your say. Membership haemorrhaging towards UKIP has given us our referendum.

More and more EU members are watching us, hoping that referendums will be triggered in their own countries. They want an opportunity for their say on the project which destroys industries, jobs and lives.

The EU spreads our money around many organisations, political parties, unions, BBC, CBI and many charities requiring their promotion of the EU.

Finally remember, it was ‘experts’ who built the unsinkable ‘Titanic’. Vote to take control, Vote Leave.

Roy Garner

Chairman, Thornbury & Yate Conservative Association (Speaking personally)

North Road

Yate