MADAM – Chris Jockel's apparent surrender of the Green Party nomination as PPC for Stroud is mystifying with the general election being only a few weeks away.

Maybe he read those parts of the Green manifesto which say that: the notion of being 'British' should be swept away; national borders be removed completely; support for terrorist organisations is quite OK (including presumably the ones which seek to harm Britain and its people).

Quite a lot to come to terms with.

I can perhaps understand the decision.

In his valedictory letter to the SNJ (February 11) he berates the cost of defending Britain and her allies via a proposed Trident missile renewal.

The renewal, if adopted, will serve to protect our country as it has done for a considerable number of years and would seem sensible in light of the fact that the 'banking crisis' has left our armed forces with dwindling resources and no prospect of an increase for some years to come.

It comes at a price which is not cheap, and estimates of that price vary widely; £100billion, as suggested in the letter is probably a considerable overestimation.

Whilst there are maintenance costs, it won't need to be replaced every five years unlike the British monetary contributions to the EU.

At current rates – £50million per day – the cost of Britain's membership and contributions to the European Union will amount to an absolute minimum of £91,250,000,000 during the course of the next five year parliament and so it would go on.

There will be add ons of course like the £1billion which was demanded buy the EU at the end of 2014.

This demand – even in times of gross austerity – was apparently legal but such are the complexities of our membership that the 'small print', which allows for such demands, was not appreciated by the best brains in Whitehall and our parliament was left looking decidedly uninformed and embarrassed when this money was demanded.

One wonders what other demands might be sprung on the UK if we continue our involvement with this odious, secretive and self-possessed organisation.

The unsympathetic treatment of the Greek people tells us that they certainly won't be beneficial.

Mr Jockel's letter also complains that the cost of Trident could be better spent in this time of continued austerity.

One could also make the same claim more persuasively regarding our EU contributions.

Scrap Trident and we don't even have an aircraft carrier let to defend us; leave the EU and those massive contributions become immediately available to the British Government and austerity would end.

There is only one party which promises to do this; all others wish to continue with the current charade.

No doubt we would hear the recycled pleas that we shouldn't leave the EU because it would cost us jobs.

Would it?

We've been one of the prime trading nations of the world for centuries and I don't think we need instructions on how to continue to be so.

Meanwhile youth unemployment in Europe is running in many places at 25 per cent.

Why on earth do we need to pay fortunes to be part of such a failed experiment? – for that is what it is: The EU's future is bleak, bleak, bleak.

Ukip's vision of a life free of Brussels' interference is one of hope.

Roger Gough

Minchinhampton