Your summary of Mario Monti's plea (The Tablet, 29 January) for Britain to think long-term about its membership and relationship with EU was all too brief. The real problem is the profound abyss between the vision of Europe peddled by European politicos and institutions and the needs of ordinary people, not only in the UK but across the various national components of the EU.
A recent poll by Eurobarometer found that around three quarters of UK citizens doubted that their voices counted in the EU. This was not unique to the UK. In eight other member states - Spain, Italy, the Czech Republic, Portugal, Latvia, Estonia, Greece, and Cyprus - citizens felt the same and that is a problem.
The UK has been funnelled by successive heads of Government into a political system without our agreement. The UK has never been afforded the opportunity to vote on its membership and relationship of the EU. Allied to this is a different understanding of democracy. Ours is that elected Members of Parliament can hold government ministers to account either in the public forum of the House of Commons or the various Select Committees of the House.
That does not seem to be the European way. No-one seems to be able to hold the EU Executive to account - why else would the European Court of Auditors, the independent institution whose main role is to check that the funds available to the EU are used legally, efficiently and for the intended purposes, refuse to sign off the EU Accounts, year after year after year? If there is one thing guaranteed to get up the collective nose of the British, it is that their taxes are being misspent, squandered or filched.
Secondly, the initial imperative for a united Europe was peace rather than prosperity. We understand why our European neighbours, scarred by the horrendous conflicts of the twentieth century, saw political union as a guarantee of peace. We, too, were scarred, but just see things differently. The EU has been highly successful in promoting peace, welcoming more and more nations from eastern Europe, though the peace perspective faded a little. Promoting prosperity for member states and citizens is in the ascendant.
UK citizens seem, by and large, comfortable with the idea of a close and warm trading partnership with the EU, but that's as close (and as warm) as we want to get. Political union or governance by directives from European bureaucrats that have not been through the House are not on the agenda, and never have been. Mr Monti is wise to draw our attention to the possible economic perils of a "Brexit", a British exit, for the UK, but the consequences for Europe will, I suspect be far more profound.
Joe Norton, Hemel Hempsted, Hertfordshire
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