The Spectator

Letters | 20 September 2018

issue 22 September 2018

Stand by your plan

Sir: Matthew Parris (‘Must the will of the people always be respected?’, 15 September) asks when it is permissible to seek to overturn a referendum result. He missed a crucial point, which is that the answer depends on the locus of the individual considering the question. To my mind an ordinary citizen is always free to campaign to overturn the result. An MP, possibly, but not when elected on a manifesto to implement said result or who when campaigning in the referendum said they would abide by the result. Any member of a government who has promised to implement the result must clearly do just that.
Johnny Cameron

Pewsey, Wilts

Corporate theft

Sir: Reading Liam Halligan’s ‘The world the crash made’ (8 September) I was disappointed to note the omission of the word ‘corporatism’. To describe what has happened since 2008 as capitalism is to miss the point. In a capitalist system, companies that cease to be solvent fold.

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