Democratic Accountability

Mr Stedman's short letter (EADT 24/11/09) was short and effective in delivering misinformation to readers. Other letters such as Stuart Letten, and Ian Smith (both EADT 20/11/09) seem to be seeking to drip a poisonous misrepresentation on the subject of the European Union. The Lisbon Treaty transferred power back to the 27nations of the EU, and democratised some of the institutions.

It did not introduce any form of European Government of Britain. Our government is in London, though it is increasingly not in Westminster, but in Downing Street.

No foreign power governs Britain as implied in Mr Stedman's letter, but his claim that there has been no instance of any people giving up their right to govern themselves without a fight shows a remarkable lack of knowledge of British history and culture. Has he not heard of the Act of Union of 1707? When Scotland united with England. Or the Act of Union of 1800, when Northern Ireland joined Great Britain and we became the United Kingdom?

We can go further back in history when the various kingdoms of the British Isles elected High Kings from among their number to have the high rule.

We now have a President of the Council of Ministers. He is not a High King, or even the President of Europe! So now instead of a rotating Presidency changing every six months, whose main job is running his own country. We now have someone, democratically chosen by those democratic leaders, to bring a bit of stability and continuity to that European Committee.

Have those suffering from Europhobia become so taken up with their obsession that they have missed the breakdown of democratic accountability in our own country? Local Government across the breadth of the United Kingdom has been stripped away and power over billions of public spending handed over to unelected, unaccountable quangos. Not only have the British Public not fought to defend our rights and powers, they increasingly given passive support for the erosion of those powers by staying away from the ballot boxes that could be used to throw out of power those that now abuse that power.

Successive governments have made 'government' bigger, bribing MP's with more government positions, while taking power away from those MP's elected to protect our democratic rights. Opposition has became spin rather than reasoned well argued debate. Even the principle of cabinet government has been so eroded that a Prime Minister can take our 'democratic' country into an illegal war on the basis of a lie, and escape all accountability for his actions.

There is something deeply flawed in the way our country is run. It is time the great British Public went back to the Ballot Box and did something about it. Staying at home just doesn't cut the ice anymore!