I nearly fell off my chair when I read what UKIP MEP Mike Nattrass wrote in a letter to the editor of EU Reporter, a magazine aimed at small businesses. Referring to an article I had written in the same magazine, Mr Nattrass wrote:

"What the Europhile Richard Corbett MEP describes as the euro sceptic attack on his vision in your 30th January issue is no such thing. In fact UKIP can agree with most of what he has written!"

He then goes on to list a few specific points over which he disagrees - leaving the majority of my article untouched.

So we are to infer that UKIP now agrees with the main thrust of my article, as follows:

• When we get it right, European legislation is an exercise in cutting red tape.
• European legislation is not adopted against the will of the Member States.
• The EU single market has brought us all financial benefits in the region of €2000 per family per year.

Needless to say, Mr Nattrass's letter was not entirely free of the usual UKIP froth.

He asks, "What has the imposition of a new driving licence on UK motorcyclists got to do with free trade?" This is a bizarre question. Why should it be anything to do with free trade if governments choose to require drivers to be licensed? Surely, all governments do this for traffic safety reasons. The only EU dimension is to cut bureaucracy and red tape by agreeing a single set of licence types rather than the 80-odd that used to be in force across Europe - thereby also making it easier for the police to check people actually do have valid driving licences. Now, would Mr Nattrass rather that were not the case?

He then asks, “Why do they want to make our ports more difficult to operate?”. Who does he mean by "they"? Surely not the European Parliament - which just threw out proposals for changing to the current system for ports.

He then asks why "our parliament" is "stopped by the EU" from debating capital punishment? Come on, Mr Nattrass. Surely, after nearly two years as an MEP, you must have picked up at least the basics of how things work? You must know that reason the UK and more than 40 other countries agreed to scrap the death penalty has nothing at all to do with the EU. It's the European Convention on Human Rights, which was set up at Britain's initiative shortly after the Second World War. Rather than admit the facts, Mr Nattrass is trying to recruit supporters of the death penalty to support his anti-European political ends!