Three-quarters of Britain’s electors took part in the 1979 General Election, when Margaret Thatcher became Prime Minister.

A month later, less than a third here bothered to vote in the first-ever direct elections for the “European Parliament”.

This was a little embarrassing, as the average turnout then across Europe was twice as much.

In the intervening 35 years, a strange thing has happened.

The European Parliament has acquired much more power. Although the initiative on EU legislation, budget, and top jobs, rests with heads of state and Government (the European Council), and the Commission, the Parliament has “co-decision” on almost all issues apart from foreign and defence policy.

Meanwhile, turnouts across Europe for these elections have plummeted – down to an average of 43%, not far off the UK’s (now 34%), with countries like Poland on 23%, Hungary 19%, and Slovakia on 13%.

In many (not all) EU member states a lot of those who did exercise their vote were not exactly enthusiasts for the European project, as we have seen in the UK, and France.

For all the EU’s imperfections, the British people are better served if we stay as members, than leave.

Much change is, however, needed.

On the agenda we should put the European Parliament. Direct election to this body was supposed to lead to much greater democratic legitimacy for the EU. The reverse has been the case. There are plenty of well-meaning hard working MEPs, but as an institution it has failed. The Economist, under a headline “Elected, yet strangely unaccountable” quoted Heather Grabbe (no Euro-sceptic) of the Open Society Foundations as criticising the Parliament for acting “more like a group of lobbyists who spend money and pass laws but do not connect with the voters.”

The answer? Go back to an EU Assembly of National Parliaments. It worked before. It would be much cheaper. There’d be direct connection with voters, through each country’s national MPs. Treaty change will be required. It will be difficult. But the issue will not go away simply by not talking about it.