WE must thank Gary Titley for letting us know that the accounts for the Department of Work and Pensions and those of the Inland Revenue have not been signed off for a number of years.

However, he seems to take umbrage at K Gratton's criticism of the EU.

Can he answer the question as to why Marta Andreasen, the former chief accountant of the European Commission, should risk losing her £85,000 a year job (which she subsequently did), by stating that the EU budget was "an open till waiting to be robbed"?

She has also stated that her experience had led her to conclude that the EU is "a project of a political elite that runs things in its own interests far from the interests of its own citizens".

I am sure that Mr Titley would agree that the taxpayers of this country - paying over one-fifth of their income in tax - have the right to know where their money is going.

If MEPs wish to change our opinion about what goes on in the EU, there needs to be much more openness and honest appraisal of its internal affairs.

Anne Scott Dewhurst Road Harwood