On Oct 16, 3:40*pm, Tom Barry wrote:
I'd query on "until recently". Even WWII's main effect was to replace
Hitler with Stalin in charge of Poland...

True. In fact probably most of the world if you go by population is still
ruled by a dictator or unelected ruling committee. We're rather lucky in the
west to be able to vote , though the EU commision seems to be doing its
best to roll the clock back by imposing rules thought up by unelected
beaurocrats.

Rule by butter, again?

Nah, it's clearly rule by handsome Frenchmen

Anyway, we're quite happy to have unelected heads of state, QUANGOs, a
powerful civil service, councils elected on tiny shares of the vote, a
government quite legally ruling for five years with the support of 22%
of the electorate and an entire chamber of Parliament based on patronage
and birth, so I'm not sure we can really lecture the rest of Europe on
democracy unless we're willing to stand up for it at home.

This is true. The European Parliament is as democratic as the House of
Commons. The Council of Ministers is a hell of a lot more democratic
than the Lords (each member is nominated by a country's elected
government, for the duration of that council only). And the European
Commission [executive] is as democratic as the UK Government (members
are nominated by the CoM and confirmed or rejected by Parliament).

The myth that the EU is unelected or unaccountable, when everything is
either handled by direct election or by voting among democratically
elected governments, is frankly peculiar.

--
John Band
john at johnband dot org
www.johnband.org