SIR

A commonly-held fallacy was blown apart this month after the EU Commissioner for Trade told Sky News the UK would survive well outside of the EU.

Karel de Gucht suggested the myth that the UK would suffer economic woes if leaving the union was not justified.

It is often chorused by those who wish to see the UK remain shackled to Europe that leaving the EU would weaken British trade.

The UK trades at a deficit with Europe, importing far more from the continent than we export. We are one of the biggest markets for EU goods.

If we left the EU there is no way that Brussels would cut us off from a free trade agreement that would continue to benefit them more than us.

We are too tightly bound with Europe and as a result we are being disproportionately affected by the Eurozone crisis. We should be exploiting our long established links with the Commonwealth which represents very different markets from all four corners of the globe, not putting all our eggs in one rather perilous basket.

The EU model is outdated and is proving itself to be a failure. By being a member of the EU we are isolating ourselves from the rest of the world and not embracing globalisation.

I challenged the European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso over the remarks made by the EU Trade Commissioner. His silent response, I think, says it all.

John Bufton

(MEP for Wales, Powys)