IN REPLY to the letter (We need reform) in last week’s Advertiser, while I can agree that successive governments have indeed enabled an increasing number of Europeans to come to the UK to live and work, I do not agree that representative democracy is a failure or that direct action is overdue.
Any call for ‘direct action’ is at the very least ambiguous, but what it actually means in this context is not clear at all.
Thomas Jefferson, who is quoted in the letter, said many things, including, “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.”
Personally I would rather stick with Winston Churchill, who commented to Parliament in November 1947, “Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe.
“No one pretends that democracy is perfect or allwise.
“Indeed it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time...”
David Drew, Goodworth Clatford.
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