Should we then show a little sympathy for our Members of European Parliament and their economic problems and compare their struggle with ours in this economic exigency?

An MEP's salary is a miserly £61,000 per year.

But they have extras which can amount to £36,000 not accounted for either by docket or receipt and with these perks and other subsidies their accumulated salary can reach £150,000. Yes times are really hard for them!

We pay £2b costs for their services, that's £2.6m for each MEP.

We should ask, are they giving value for money? By the same token are local MPs intending to quaff from an identical trough in Britain?

In reality, Brits are not an agreeable commodity to most Europeans and the menagerie in Brussels consider us as the "milk cow" of Europe for cash to sustain their exorbitant spending.

Perhaps instead of carping about the so-called EU Treaty and MEPs salaries, should we all be campaigning for a common market rather than a United States of Europe and maybe canvass to opt out of Europe altogether.

Doing so, we would regain our sovereign rights, our fishing grounds, agriculture, business inducements, immigration and border controls and kiss goodbye to the dreaded Human Rights Act forever.

Ireland's 'no' could be our saviour if they back-heel this EU Treaty.

Which reminds me, they at least have had a referendum on this convoluted EU Treaty – a privilege denied to Britain by un-elected Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

Fred Gibbon,
Masefield Road,
Hartlepool.