I WAS concerned to read the letter here on 13 May from Robert Hickman CBE complaining about “pro EU nonsense” from a Stronger In Europe leaflet given out in town one day.

This is the same gentlemen who chaired an EU referendum debate in April that was described by local remain campaigners as a pro leave ambush.

In response in a letter dated 22 April Mr Hickman complained at the Andover Advertiser for reporting the ambush story. He protested that the debate had all been neutral despite the fact that pro leave supporters were able to heckle speakers that they didn’t like. If Mr Hickman then writes letters complaining about “pro EU nonsense”

this then suggests that the debate wasn’t as neutral as he made it all out to be. And now this week, the people of Andover are treated to another debate, again chaired by another vocal pro leave supporter – local MP Kit Malthouse.

Mr Hickson highlighted the claim by the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) that every £1 we put into the EU, we get £10 back. The CBI thinks it’s a bad idea to leave the EU, along with the National Institute of Economic and Social Research, the International Monetary Fund, the Organisation of Economic Development, the City of London and the Bank of England and much more, with the list seemingly getting longer by the day. The default response by the leavers is that it’s all rubbish and in the case of the Governor of the Bank of England Mark Carney to threaten him by saying he should resign. Surely such organisations cannot all be wrong?

What the CBI is seeking to highlight in their claim is the benefits of free and unfettered trade with the EU single market. If they’re wrong, then why do so many leave campaigners want to retain access to the single market?

But not only do they want to retain access, they seem to want it all for nothing too.

They don’t want us to pay anything into it and they don’t want us to comply with any of the rules either. It’s like leaving your partner, and saying you’re not going to pay for your children, but you still want your tea cooked for you every night. I do not know how we are going to get even one EU country to support that, let alone 27?

How many reading this letter want to leave the EU because you think it’ll reduce immigration? As with Norway and Switzerland (countries outside the EU) if you want access to the single market you may need to comply with the rules and that includes the free movement of EU peoples.

Finally, Mr Hickson, I really do believe that workers’ rights would be under threat if we left the EU, because the Conservative party spent so long trying to resist them all.

Paul Goddard, St Ann’s Close, Andover