Democracy? Don’t make me laugh

Here’s a simple test for readers – how many can name their MEPs? Do any even know how many MEPs they have? Who can name our (unelected) President (Herman van Rompuy)? Who voted for him? (nobody did). Who even knows how he got the job? (nobody does!)

The fact of the matter is that all EU legislation is proposed by the (unelected) European Commission, which meets in secret and issues no minutes. It is in fact one of only three legislatures in the world to meet in secret – the other two being Cuba and North Korea.

The Commissioners are appointed by their respective governments by some process to which we are not privy.

How many readers know who Britain’s Commissioner is? (Baroness Catherine Ashton, High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, and Vice President of the European Commission).

Despite her grand title, Cathy Ashton has never been elected to any public office in her life, unless you count treasurer of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.

She has risen without trace to become the highest paid female politician in the world. Gordon Brown, our former (unelected) Prime Minister, gave her the job as a reward for forcing the Lisbon Treaty through the House of Lords (to which she had been appointed by Tony Blair).

Democracy, Mr Weaver? Don’t make me laugh.

Oh, and by the way, the Romanians and Bulgarians who will be arriving on our shores from next year are not ‘immigrants’ from the EU; they are EU citizens, the same as you and I and all the other East Europeans currently living here, with exactly the same entitlements. We’re all Europeans now!

HUGO MILLER

Curzon Avenue, Horsham