Tom Ekin: EU is said to be inefficient but so is Stormont and that doesn't mean it should be shut

It is claimed that local is good.

Has anyone had a good look at our local inefficiency and bureaucracy? If the tax payers of NI had a good look at the wastage of their money caused by our local decision making, or more often non decision making, they should act and withhold taxes until wastage stops.

Our local administrations pander to very local demands and not the needs of the whole of NI.

My business experience in NI, both import and export, tells me that the world traders like UK as a base because of language, location and being part of European Market.

Has anyone put a cost on the bureaucracy and politicking of separation. How many non useful bureaucrats will be recruited?

As an inexact parallel: do I think the NI assembly is effective? No! Like a lot of people I don’t!

But it serves some purpose and we should try to modernise it rather than tear it down.

The EU is far more important than migration and economics. Would we have set standards for food safety, waste control, environment protection etc?

Exiting EU will not make us better off unless we do something radical in NI, and recent experience says we won’t.

Tom Ekin, Belfast