THE case for leaving the EU has its roots in the defence of representative democracy in the UK and of the ability to govern ourselves.

The campaign to get the UK out of the EU really took off after the Maastricht Treaty (1992) which accelerated the rate at which powers were transferred from member states to the EU institutions.

The final destination of integration was never specified but we, "the people", were expected to go along with it obediently.

We may vote in European parliamentary elections but we cannot directly elect nor sack the EU government (the Commission) nor vote for its manifesto because it doesn't publish one.

The UK's vote on EU legislation in the Council of Ministers amounts to a paltry 8 per cent, and the UK is outvoted more than any other member state. Democracy in the EU is a sham. The system favours big business interests.

With every EU treaty that is ratified by parliament we lose yet another sizeable chunk of our sovereignty, and by sovereignty I mean the power of our vote in UK parliamentary elections to influence change in our lives in our own country.

What's the point of having a vote when membership of the EU effectively means losing it?

In the last few months we have seen many MPs plotting to frustrate, delay and overturn Brexit one way or another. Many of them now back another referendum when their real, and barely concealed, motive is to reverse the result of the last one. This is "anti-democracy" at work.

The campaign to get us out of the EU has always been a battle against anti-democratic forces at home as much as in the EU itself.

This is an existential battle - for the survival of democracy in the UK for generations to come - and for the restoration of "government of the people, by the people, for the people" and not "... of the people, by unaccountable politicians and bureaucrats, for big business and other vested interests".

N SCRASE

Taunton