LETTER: '˜Absurd' claims sully debate

I find that the connection made by Brexit between the UK's contribution to the EU and funding for the NHS, as instanced in R. Hopkins' letter last week, highly distasteful. No matter that the figures quoted are nonsense '“ even that arch euro-sceptic John Redmond recently quoted an annual UK net contribution to the EU of 10 billion pounds which, on my simple arithmetic, works out at under 200 million per week '“ the simple fact is that our contribution to the EU is tiny in the context of the government's annual budget. In the opinion of many economists, the knock to the UK economy which will occur in the event of a Brexit will be infinitely greater than this amount in terms of lost tax revenue. Due to increasing length of life and the ever increasing invention of new medical techniques and drugs, the NHS will continue to face enormous funding challenges, probably only surmountable with a radical rethink. Let's not sully that discussion with absurd claims in the EU debate.