OUR MP, Douglas Carswell, has clearly settled into his cushy job as a Parliamentarian, nice salary, pension and expenses, and demonstrating convenient memory syndrome and selective use of statistics (Gazette, October 27) when he rants on about the EU.

He fails to remind the people of Tendring that Ted Heath, Margaret Thatcher and John Major, all Tory government leaders gave away more sovereignty, legal powers and financial regulation to the EU than any government before or since.

Did Carswell support them? He says the Gazette online poll shows overwhelming support for a referendum on the EU. Actually 107 people voted in that poll out of a total local population of 148,000 - hardly representative.

The best guide is the last UKIP vote in the General Election as they were the only party committed to leaving the EU - and they did not get their candidate elected anywhere.

As for the recent vote in Parliament, triggered by the 100,000 online national petition, put in perspective, that number of signatures represents about 0.5 per cent of the UK population. Hardly an “overwhelming majority” of public opinion?

Steven Walker
Sunny Point
Walton