Letter to the Editor, Irish Times
A chara, –
John Lloyd (Opinion & Analysis, January 25th) argues that Fintan O’Toole has got it all wrong when he argues that Brexit is caused, in part, by a nostalgia for an imperial past and a tendency to blame the EU for all ills that afflict the UK.
Instead, he argues that Brexit was motivated largely by a desire to be ruled by their own parliament and courts which the British people can better understand and control – in contrast to a fundamentally undemocratic, opaque and unaccountable EU.
Am I alone in tiring of being lectured on democracy by the only country in Europe without a clear and written constitution, with an entirely unelected upper house of parliament, an unelected head of state, and an electoral system which can lead to wildly disproportionate results and which renders many votes in “safe” constituencies pointless as they will have no influence on the overall result?
One can argue that the Brexit result was as much a protest against a UK political system which had successfully deflected all blame for its own failings onto the EU.
For once, every vote actually counted. – Yours, etc,
FRANK SCHNITTGER
