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Like so many EU apologists Mr Goldsmith talks as if the fundamental rights of a British citizen were somehow derivative from or dependent upon our dubious possession of a spurious "citizenship" of "Europe". Yet he can hardly be ignorant of the fact that the United Kingdom existed, and enjoyed those rights, for a good few years before the "Union" was more than a glimmer in the eye of a corrupt former cognac-salesman by the name of Jean Monnet. He must also be aware that no country historically has done more to promote the rule of law in western Europe, if not the world, than our own - a point Mr Drowssap frequently touches upon. Finally, neither Mr Goldsmith nor any other Unionist I have read ever attempts to explain how it is that far smaller and weaker countries outside the EU have as good (maybe better)protection for their citizens' fundamental rights as Great Britain has after 43 years' EU membership, let alone certain other "states of the union". The truth is that GDP and "values" are incommensurate terms. On this point I recall a case many years ago when French secret agents blew up a merchant ship and murdered a crew member in New Zealand. The NZ authorities promptly identified the killers, who were just as promptly given protection by the French government and received back in France with honours. Will even Mr G suggest that the rule of law is safer within a supranational bureaucracy under the joint control of France and Germany than in the small homogeneous democracy in the southern hemisphere?