From Ms Ruth Lea.

Sir, Gideon Rachman’s article “For nations, small is beautiful” (December 4) fatally undermined the oft-stated canard that the UK must be embedded in the EU’s economic and political union in order to prosper. Leaving aside the fact that the UK is no economic minnow – it has the fifth biggest economy in the world and is the third largest trading nation in current account terms – it is clear from Mr Rachman’s analysis that, even if it were, this would be no bar to economic success.