Democracy or bureaucracy
Sir: Professor Garton Ash makes a scholarly appeal for us all to be content with government from Brussels for the foreseeable future (‘A conservative case for staying in’, 5 March). The alternative would involve possible risk. Very true. But the professor skates animbly round two words: governmental system. After numerous combats and enormous suffering, the British live within and are ruled by an elective democracy. In a reference to his Churchillian quote, it may be an imperfect system but it is better than all the others. Read the works of Jean Monnet and one will understand why the governmental system of the EU was never designed to be a democracy, is not a democracy and never will be. It is a non-elective bureaucracy.
One can choose to be governed by one system or the other but not both, or part of both. One has to dominate the other and we know which has the primacy. You cannot have both because they are mutually incompatible.
Frederick Forsyth
Buckinghamshire
The best superpower
Sir: Freddy Gray’s article (‘America turns nasty’, 5 March) provided us with a very stimulating view on Donald Trump’s America and where it is heading. However, I would dispute one of his statements. He described America as the most benevolent superpower in history. I understand why he believes that and there is no doubt that the United States has been generous with its assistance to the wider world.
Despite that generosity of spirit on the part of America, I believe Britain, albeit in the past, to have been the most benevolent superpower. It is Britain that spread the values we all hold dear around the globe, and when she did have supreme power she exercised it, on the whole, in a responsible way, before sacrificing it all in two world wars fought to save the world from darker forces.
Comments
Join the debate for just £1 a month
Be part of the conversation with other Spectator readers by getting your first three months for £3.
UNLOCK ACCESS Just £1 a monthAlready a subscriber? Log in