It has come to our attention that many newspapers are receiving letters from readers with wild and wonderful estimates of how much the UK pays to the EU budget each year. We have seen figures range from £40billion to £100billion per year! Where these figures have come from we are not sure, but so that you can counter these rediculous claims should you seem them in the newspapers you read, here are the actual figures:
In 2007, the gross UK contribution to the EU will be approx £12.6billion. The net contribution (when our rebate and receipts are taken into account) will be £4.7billion, just a little bit lower than the £100billion Eurosceptic estimate!! Click here the source and more figures for future years.
You might also find it interesting to compare the Eurosceptic estimates of the UK contributions to other areas of the UK budget. Click here to see how much the government spends on different policies. As you can see, the highest Eurosceptic estimate puts UK contributions to the EU at more that 3 times the amount the UK spends on defence each year!
We hope that these two sources of information will allow you to counter these ridiculous claims if you see them in your local media. http://www.oxfordprospect.co.uk/euaccounts.htm
Oxfordprospect.co.uk - Oxford News 
The precise level of contribution doesn’t alter the fact that the EU is an undemocratic mess that we shouldn’t waste ANY money on.
Democracy comes in many forms I suspect you are complaining that its policies do not fit in with your view point.
There are several definitions of the word democracy
1) The right to a form of government in which power is invested in the people as a whole, usually exercised on their behalf by elected representatives.
2) A country with a democratically elected government
3) A system of government based on the principle of majority decision-making
4) The control of an organization by its members, who have a right to participate in decision-making processes
Well in many ways the EU fits all these interpretations.
1) The people’s views are represented by elected officials directly via
a) Elected Members of the European Parliament
b) Through elected government ministers representing their respective member states in the Council of Ministers.
c) Elected local and regional government is represented through the Committee of the Regions.
2) First of all the EU is still evolving, it depends what you mean by a democratically elected government. In some countries the head of state is elected directly by the people, by members of the parliament or an electoral college. In Britain, Holland and Spain the head of state is born into the job, are they less democratic than Germany or Poland?
3) Actually the Lisbon Treaty will enable an increasing number of policies of issues to be decided on a majority basis, meaning it becomes much more difficult for a minority interests to stop a popular policy.
4) The EU is an example where decision making takes place at a variety of levels, from The Council of Ministers, European Commission and European Court of Justice, member states governments and parliaments and local governments.
Note: for a policy to be adopted such ERTMS (European Rail Train Management Systems) . Such a policy has to be agreed at a variety of levels and interests, both at industry, national and EU level as it will affect all aspects of the European Railway industry.
On a UK level, you could argue that there are problems with our democracy.
1. The Queen is born into the job.
2. In Oxfordshire for instance the Tory Party has a majority of council seats, yet a majority of people who voted, did not vote for the Tory Party. So we have had introduced across the city an unpopular policy of city wide resident’s parking zones, despite protests and results of consultations which were overwhelmingly against such proposals.
3. In London, the Cross rail project is being partly funded by the EU. Which will be of immense benefit to the regional economy.
Last though, much is made about Brutus murdering Caesar and Magna Carta as examples of promoting democracy. In fact such action taken was to protect the vested interests of the aristocracy of the time.
Also what would you solution be to improve the democratic systems in the EU, given that policy making is increasingly complicated and a whole range of vested interests are involved including national governments, businesses, trade unions and pressure groups. For instance, the EU needs to coordinate its energy policy, including the construction of a new EU wide energy grid. You need some EU wide forum to debate, formulate, coordinate and implement policy.