Last week, economist Roger Bootle wrote a piece for The Telegraph entitled We cannot be fooled by the myth of EU economic success. I have taken the liberty of reproducing it here and correcting and commenting upon many of the inaccuracies that the piece contained.

One of the most frequently repeated lies about Europe is to say that, when we joined the EU, ‘we were told we were only joining a free-trade area’ and ‘no-one told us that it was more than that’. / Britain actually left a free-trade area, EFTA, to join the EEC.