THE reason why the elite in Brussels want us to stay within the EU is very simple: their world and lifestyle depends on it. I wonder how many people know that more than 10,000 workers directly employed by the European Commission - almost half the total - earn more than £71,500 a year. In the next salary band, another 2,000 or so receive nearly the equivalent of David Cameron’s £144,000 salary, while another 250 receive over £160,000-plus. And all salaries are free from national taxation.

It is also quite astonishing that Eurocrats received, at the beginning of this year, an inflation-busting pay rise, costing EU taxpayers £74million. At a time of willed or imposed austerity for most member states, the EU’s administrative class is growing in number and self-importance and awarding itself pay rises no other sector of the European economy can afford.

And as the EU workforce expands, so does its footprint: work is currently proceeding on a grandiose egg-cage shaped £300 million new home for the European Council, which will meet there only six times a year. None of the other 90, very posh buildings which the EU have, in Brussels alone, would do.

The European Council president, Donald Tusk, receives the same salary as Jean-Claude Juncker - another unelected and unaccountable president (he is head of the European Commission) – who gets a whopping £250,000 a year.

By now, we all know about the mega billions we give to the EU every year. Thanks to the deepening migrant crisis, it is now looking for more …£50 billion to solve the migration crisis it can’t cope with. It plans to establish a European External Investment Fund to raise cash for large-scale projects to solve the “root causes” of immigration – and the lion’s share will be demanded from the fifth largest economy in the world, Great Britain.

As the taxpayer-funded EU gravy train continues to rumble on at breakneck speed, the time has come to hand back our ticket back and come off this train on June 23, at the Brexit station, before it crashes.

Donald J Morrison,

85 Old Edinburgh Road, Inverness.

ONCE again Scotland’s First Minister is judged to have performed well in a debate aimed at a UK-wide audience (“Sturgeon hammers Boris”, The Herald, July 10). Nicola Sturgeon was speaking to people across the four nations that together make up the UK, saying how important it is for our collective economic prosperity, security, and environmental and worker protections, that we remain in the EU. Yet she openly admits that when this EU debate is over, she and her Government plan to commence an open-ended campaign targeting those who voted No in 2014, with a view to undermining the UK and separating Scotland from those in England, Wales and Northern Ireland that most of us view as our fellow citizens.

Seeing issues through the prism of Scottish nationalism allows all manner of contortions of logic, but while some might have considered this another bravura debating performance, the fundamental flaw in Nicola Sturgeon’s case will not be lost on people elsewhere in the UK.

Keith Howell,

White Moss, West Linton, Peeblesshire.

WHEN David Cameron was questioned on TV about “expert” opinion supporting his dire warnings of financial loss for individuals if the Leave vote was successful, he asked if anybody would build a house without expert advice. The big difference is that builders work to well proven methods, whereas the predictions of economists are “educated” guesses.

William W Scott,

23 St Baldred’s Road, North Berwick.

CONTROL seemed to be the mantra or buzzword of the Leave campaign during the TV debate on Thursday

Returning control from Brussels means giving total control to Westminster, probably under the control of Boris Johnston, Michael Gove, Iain Duncan Smith and Chris Grayling, who will control everything they possibly can.

Food for urgent thought.

Nigel Dewar Gibb,

15 Kirklee Road, Glasgow.

TOP marks all round to the six participants in the ITV EU referendum debate and to the calmly effective host newsreader Julie Etchingham.

The individual presentations and exchanges gripped attention for the full two hours and at the end I scored it a well-fought draw which for quality and content exceeded anything I recall viewing in the 2014 independence debates.

Or could that just be a memory thing and continued exposure to the same old arguments?

R Russell Smith,

96 Milton Road, Kilbirnie.

I AM amazed that George Osborne has so much time on his hands– feeding sheep at a Scottish farm – when one would have thought he'd be so busy planning the financial and economic future of the UK post a Brexit vote on June 23 (“Osborne: Vote Remain to kill off fresh Scots referendum”, The Herald, June 10).

If he and his boss David Cameron had an ounce of concern for our country, they'd be at their desks making plans to deal with a whole range of issues such as the process towards making new trading deals around the world.

This is incompetence on a grand scale. It is high time both of them started doing the jobs we pay them for and stopped peddling highly spurious nonsense and outright propaganda.

NJ Hunter,

Caledonian Road, Stevenston.

HOW many of the problems we have in the UK can actually be solved by remaining in or leaving the EU?

One reason we don't export as much outside the EU as, for example Germany, is because their goods and services are better and our workforce is not as skilled, educated or motivated. Another consequence of this is our 1.6 million unemployed can't fill the 700,000 vacancies, so we need immigrants.

Is this the EU's fault or ours? The success of "our" NHS, which is being dragged into the debate, is also linked to our own economic performance, skills and motivation as well as our lifestyles and diet, irrespective of whether we are "in" or "out".

And would Remainers be so keen on EU social and other legislation having precedence if, to appease the newer members, a minimum wage of £5 and 45 hour week were mandated?

Before looking for someone to blame for your problems it's always worth having a quick look in the mirror first.

Allan Sutherland,

1 Willow Row, Stonehaven.

IAN Jones’s letter (June 10) contains some misleading statements. Laws are enacted by Westminster, not Brussels.

Policies are made by MEPs and the Council of Ministers, aided by the EU Commission. Laws resulting from this highly democratic process are enacted by national governments; in our case Westminster. The UK plays an active role in developing the policies. How any policy is enacted is down to individual governments. The fact that Westminster has failed to implement some policies to the UK benefit is not the fault of Brussels.

Those who are too young to remember should be reminded that, when UK joined the then EEC, we were bankrupt, with the International Monetary Fund running the Treasury. President De Gaulle vetoed UK membership for years. Do not think for a moment that European nations will roll over and play nice if we leave. They won't. Sterling has already lost more than 10 per cent of i's value because of the possibility of us leaving. The devaluation will continue apace if that comes to pass.

Membership has been hugely beneficial to the UK. Almost all the scaremongering over the years has been ludicrously false. A vote to stay in is the only positive, forward-looking vote possible. Anything else is prejudice, opportunism or cowardice.

Alan Arnott,

Clarkston Farm, Lanark.