LETTER: Five questions for election time

Even though I didn’t agree with his politics, I had a healthy respect for Anthony Wedgwood Benn. He was an extraordinary debater and kept a daily diary all his life.

One quote particularly interested me from his 2001 farewell speech to the House of Commons, ‘In the course of my life I have developed five little democratic questions. If one meets a powerful person - Adolf Hitler, Joe Stalin or Bill Gates - ask them five questions: ‘What power have you got? Where did you get it from? In whose interests do you exercise it? To whom are you accountable? And how can we get rid of you?’ If you cannot get rid of the people who govern you, you do not live in a democratic system.’

With the events of the last 18 months within Horsham District Council, perhaps our councillors and would-be councillors should be asked those questions if they come asking for our vote.

Importantly answering the question ‘and how can we get rid of you’.

The simple answer for all of us concerned with what you have been reporting in your pages, it is simple – through the ballot box in May...

D. THOMPSON

Parry Close, Horsham