Letter: EU harmony, but little democracy
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.EU harmony, but
little democracy
Sir: The European Court of Justice, says Sarah Helm ("Britannia faces her judges", 28 October), is a sort of cloistered, quasi-monastic order that's in the business of "harmonising" 15 nations' ways of life. It is run by people appointed rather than elected. Its powers, she notes, are increasing almost daily, and there is a "strong expectation" that home affairs policy, the workings of the single currency and other areas of decision-making still, for the time being, under the control of the democratically elected governments of the member states, will soon be brought under its jurisdiction.
As a lifelong Labour voter, and as someone who is in favour of a common market and greater European co-operation, it pains me to find myself sharing the same soapbox as the red-faced colonels of the "Europhobic" right, but I find it hard to avoid the question of what happens to democracy in all of this.
Ordinary people throughout the nations of the European Union are losing the right to vote for the laws they live by. Tony Benn once described the centralising of power in EU institutions as "a coup d'etat by a political elite who care nothing for popular sovereignty". At the time I thought it an exaggeration: now I'm not so sure.
WARWICK CAIRNS
Windsor, Berkshire
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments