With loud voices calling for Britain to leave the European Union it's time to nail my colours to the mast.

I strongly support Britain's membership. The EU is good for British jobs, good for British influence in the world, and good for our environment.

Britain is also good for the EU. We took a lead role in creating the single market. We play a key part in developing EU foreign policy. We work hard to ensure EU laws are pragmatic and applied so as to maintain a level playing field.

Britain continues to become relatively less important globally. We were the world's first industrial nation and it's not surprising economies elsewhere are now growing faster than our own.

There is strength in numbers and being part of the EU bloc of 500m people gives us authority in trade negotiations that we could not have alone.

Does the EU get it right all the time? Of course not. It is a mechanism that allows 27 governments to work together day after day. Mistakes get made, but that's true of every organisation.

Britain could survive outside the EU, but where would be the advantage? Rules made in Brussels do not stop Germany from winning export orders overseas, so why should they stop us? Even if we left we would still apply most EU rules as the price for belonging to the single market. How would British influence be increased by our being excluded from the place where the decisions are made?

Twenty-five years ago some of our EU partners were still communist dictatorships housing nuclear missiles pointed at Britain. Today they are democracies, embracing values of freedom and justice that we have long championed. Britain should be proud of the contribution it has made to shaping EU values, and be determined to find shared solutions to our common problems.

RICHARD GRANT, Burley.