ON the debate over the UK’s membership of the EU ahead of Nigel Farage’s visit to Gloucester as part of his ‘Say No to EU’.

Posted by Phyllus Jones: Next year or 2017 we shall have what basically is a last chance to determine if the UK will continue as an EU province, continuously further integrating so as to more and more become a Florida or an Ontario without border control, or if the UK will return to being an independent self-governing country with total control of its borders. Do you want to primarily be a ‘European’ living in a British province (sorry, member state), or do you want to be a ‘Brit’ living in your own country called the United Kingdom? Few young Brits would have any memory of just what it was like to live in an independent country, so the coming referendum will be the last chance to return the UK to independence.

Posted by Gurney: Mr C says people should be “confident of our capacity to shape events in the EU”. How can we shape events to benefit the UK when we are one voice of 28?

Posted by malcolm.berry: Good point - but Florida and Ontario both have democracy and exist in a democratic state. You are too generous to the EU autocracy.

On Green Party leader Natalie Bennett’s call for the introduction of proportional representation during her visit to Stroud.

Posted by Haloge: It is certainly about time that the UK caught up with the rest of Europe by adopting PR. However, I certainly don’t see that happening while it is in the self interests of the two main parties to continue with the totally undemocratic FPTP system. Under a PR system the Commons would consist of: Conservatives - 240 instead of 325 Labour - 213 instead of 232 UKIP - 83 instead of 1 Lib Dems - 53 instead of 12 SNP - 37 instead of 56 Greens - 24 instead of 1 This would certainly better reflect the wishes of the voting public.