Marks, surely, just as you get to vote for local and national government, you get to vote for the Euro MP's? As you can also lobby local, national and EU politicans. So you do get a chance. The UK and Ireland are not communist China, or the regime of North Korea

I didn't vote Labour or Tory, but I ended up with a Labour government and a Tory MP, but I still write to them and try lobbying on various issues, some of which have been taken up seriously by my local MP, some of which haven't. But as least I tried

Trading standards tried to tell the market traders in our local market that they had to use kilograms. If anyone asked for something in lbs. and ozs. they were not to be served. Result was that the market is still working in both. As long as they give the price in kgs followed by lbs, it is now all right. You just get some officers who are a bit too zealous.

As far as the Common Market is concerned, we were not given a choice about joining, but there was a referandum about whether we wanted to continue membership. At the time it seemed like a good idea, as our ministers had just managed a brilliant coup which resulted in us paying more for sugar than everyone else. I did vote, but most people younger than me would not have had the chance.

In general, the EU makes rules and our government then make them so complicated that even their own ministers don't know what they are. Some of them have been caught by them too.