SIR – Farmers will be better off if we vote to leave the European Union. We are proud of our industry, worth £10.7 billion a year to the UK economy, and we believe that there is the potential for it to be worth even more if we are free of Brussels bureaucrats.

A vote to leave would allow Britain to continue to support farming financially. If Britain stops sending £350 million a week to the EU, it will have funds to maintain or even increase support for farmers. The Prime Minister has confirmed that the Government would continue to support farmers outside the EU.

Britain would also be able to cut the burden of regulation for farmers. The thousands of badly designed EU regulations that aim to control everything farmers do would go. The rough justice of the “cross compliance regime” would be dismantled. Instead we would have laws designed to work for British farming.

A vote to leave would make possible the change needed. At the moment it is not possible to fix the problems faced by farmers because agriculture policy is controlled by the EU.

If we vote to leave, elected ministers will be able to make the changes needed and put in place new policies to help farmers manage risk, boost their returns and reward the work that farming does for the environment.

Dr Mary Abbott Former editor, Inside Track magazine; fruit farmer

Stuart Agnew MEP MEP (Ukip)

Johnnie Arkwright Hatton Estate owner

Colin Barker Longfield Farm

Nigel Baxter Baxter Farming

Duff Burrell Ex-chairman, National Beef Association

Alistair Cargill Cargill Farms

Alan Carter Woodhill Farm

Andrew R T Davies AM (Con)

Patrick de Pelet Lowther Park Farms

Charles Dingwall C & J Dingwall

John Dodd J W & G A Dodd

Maurice Durbin Dairy Farmer, Somerset

David Eyles Retired farmer

Charlie Flindt Farmer; Columnist, Farmers’ Weekly

Jamie Foster Agricultural Solicitor

Richard Haddock Brokenbury Quarry

David Handley Chairman, Farmers for Action

Matthew Herriott Agricultural Contractor, White House Farm

Wanda Hill Quarry Farm

John Howard Heslaker Farm

Leslie Kaye Couchmans Farm

Chris Kynaston Nant Ucha Farm

Elizabeth Lewis Scientific and regulatory adviser, feed ingredients

Chris Loder Ryalls Farm

Stephen Lomax Bow Wood Farms

Rupert Lowe Ravenswell Farmhouse

Keith MacMillan Landowner

John Mason Mason Farms

James Mcilwraith Solland Stud Farm

Alison Monk Former economics lecturer, Harper Adams University

Tim Page TAC Page & Partners, Wiltshire

Robert Pascall Clock House Farm

Malcolm and Judy Pearce Lady Farm

Geoff Pickering Farmer

Colin Martin Rayner J Rayner & Sons

Ben Redman Herd manager

Matt Ridley Blagdon Hall

Andy Saunders Scotch Coultard

Michael Seals Hall Farm

William Henry Slinger Spring House Farm

India Snow Hill Farm

Philip Tong Ash Tree Farm

Gini Trower Stanstead Bury Farm

Joe Wheeler Assistant herd manager

Tom White Turville Park Farm

Sir Nicholas and Lady Winterton Whitehall Farm

Stephen Withers Upper Hundalee Farm

Bill and Eric Wright Wright’s Agriculture

SIR – My travel has been in the opposite direction to that of Alan Duncan. In 1973 I was passionately committed to the cause of European integration. Even then, it was clear that “ever-closer union” meant what it said.

After 30 years working closely with European companies and institutions, I now see that they have built societies which are much more statist than the Anglo-Saxon model. The reason for leaving the EU is not to achieve an economical miracle, but to regain our right to elect or fire the politicians who make our laws. The idea that our presence in overcrowded Brussels rooms will lead the others to sunlit uplands is laughable.

Ronald McQueen Berwick upon Tweed, Northumberland

SIR – New Zealand’s vote to retain the Union flag within their own reminds us that our EU membership has made second-class citizens of our cousins in the Commonwealth.

Continued EU membership means that Bulgarians, Romanians and even Turks will have more right to enter Britain than those whose fellow-countrymen sacrificed their lives for our freedom in many wars. I hope the British people vote to leave in June and we restore the freedom of movement once enjoyed by the Queen’s overseas subjects.

Captain Michael David Osmington, Dorset

Airports under attack

SIR – I could not agree more with Peter Austerberry’s objections to the proposal that airport security should start at the arrivals entrance (Letters, March 25). In Baghdad, queues waiting for security checks outside the Green Zone have been targeted time and again.

There is no substitute for timely intelligence and public awareness.

Lt Col Nick Moulton-Thomas Muscat, Oman

Junior doctors’ motives

SIR – Brian Farmer (Letters, March 25) suggests that junior doctors should join one of the London Underground rail unions, because they seem good at blackmail that does not put other people’s lives at risk.

One wonders whether Underground staff would agree to run a full seven-day service without any increase in manpower, thereby putting their own lives and those of passengers at risk due to the excessively long hours they would have to work in order to fulfil such a commitment.

M J Healy Toppesfield, Essex

SIR – The new contract proposed by the Government reduces the pay for overnight and weekend work, thus penalising those doctors who give up their nights and weekends to care for their patients. Given that the NHS has a finite number of doctors, all the extra “weekend” doctors will be created by moving staff from weekday shifts.

Unless the NHS fills the gaps left by these doctors’ transferral with expensive locum doctors, all we’ll end up with is a second-rate seven-day NHS with slightly more doctors on duty at the weekend, but fewer during the week.

Alan Higson Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire

SIR – The General Medical Council’s Code of Good Medical Practice states that patients must be able to trust doctors with their lives and health.

The primary expectations of the code are for doctors to make the care of the patient their first concern, to protect and promote the health of patients and the public, and to take prompt action if patients’ safety, dignity or comfort is being compromised. The code also states that doctors must never discriminate unfairly against patients or colleagues, never abuse their patients’ trust, or the public’s trust in the profession. Any code of ethical conduct must be understood, and incorporated into all aspects of a professional’s work.

How will doctors be held accountable to their patients, the public and the expectations of their professional code when they are prepared to take strike action, even to the point of deserting patients in need of emergency care?

Teresa Lynch London W6

Game in hand

SIR – The fascinating article (March 25) on “handedness” in cricket reminds me that, of my regular gang of 12 golfers, seven of us are naturally left-handed, which I suppose is in itself a very high percentage.

Stranger still, all seven of us play golf right-handed.

Roger Fowle Chipping Campden, Gloucestershire

SIR – In hurling (an ancient Irish field game), the hurley stick is held with right hand below left. The ball (sliotar) is struck a prodigious distance in a 15-a-side game. Cricketers might benefit from watching.

William G Black Belfast

Reforming ENO