I chuckled when I saw Nick Martinek’s latest letter in the Yorkshire Post complaining about my “low standards” of argument. Charming! Nonetheless it would be fascinating to see where he got his figures. “We do not elect 90 per cent of MEPs, or 90 per cent of the EU Council” he claims. Well, I’m sure that’s news
to the MEPs and Government Ministers who battled hard in elections to win their seats!

As for the idea that the EU is attempting to ban minor political
parties from entering elections, it really does make me wonder who cooks up
these bizarre attempts at scare mongering. Of course, any system of state funding for parties is limited. Joe Bloggs couldn’t set up a political party and expect to receive a fat cheque, signed by the tax-payers, to help him get started. It is absolutely right that state funding should be offered to real parties which actually have members and a degree of support from the public as shown in elections. That is how it works in Britain (where we do already have some state support through free TV party political brodcasts, free mailing of electoral addresses and "short" money given by the House of Commons to opposition parties). It is also how it works for the limited support given by the European Paliament to help with the work of political parties at European level.

That under no circumstances implies that smaller parties are excluded - they get their share. Nor are they banned from running campaigns or raising their own funds, and certainly not required to "toe the EU line" and I suspect that Mr Martinek knows it.