THE original concept of a European Common Market was worthwhile, yet the idea of a single currency shared by a collection of diverse cultures could never succeed.

One size rarely fits all. The situation will be made worse by encouraging still more countries to adopt the euro.

To insist that an individual country should hold a series of referenda until it approves a new European Union treaty is utterly ridiculous.

Why does the European Union not instruct all member countries that referenda on such matters are irrelevant? Will we, the United Kingdom, be instructed to hold another referendum, should the one we have been promised in 2017 deliver the ‘wrong’ result?

The European Union appears to be in great disarray and in extreme danger of completely disintegrating.

At the moment, I suspect that the European Union wishes to retain the membership of the United Kingdom. However, notwithstanding the views of our politicians, I do not believe that the majority of my fellow citizens wish to remain part of this bureaucratic dictatorship.

There is no need to wait until 2017 before the possibility of a referendum to decide if the United Kingdom should leave the European Union.

So, we should stop dithering now.

I suggest, therefore, that Mr Cameron immediately changes his tack and gives notice to the European Union that the United Kingdom will hold a binding ‘inout’ referendum in March 2015, to decide whether we should remain part of the European Union.

This would give the European Union six months to convince residents of the United Kingdom not to abandon it.

I predict that they would find this to be a forlorn task, and one that they may not wish to undertake.

Ernest Pullen, Southampton.