Further concern...

Whatever the arguments of this particular case, what bothers me most is how we are seeing our so-called democracy being eroded everywhere from the EU right down to local level. Do none of our politicians listen to the community they represent any more?

We all know how much unwanted EU legislation is passed down to us by MEPs we cannot name working to agendas prepared by unelected commissioners. At national government level we recently had the disgraceful spectacle of the three main party leaders imposing the whip on our MPs to prevent them voting in favour of a referendum on the EU, even though the issue had been raised by a well-supported public petition.

Recently, Arun councillors voted to support the Environment Agency’s proposal (still unconfirmed) to abandon flood protection at Climping beach, even though they knew that investigations were still ongoing, so they didn’t have all the information necessary to make such an important decision.

Nationally, we are seeing a polarisation of political support such that the majority of Labour votes are concentrated in urban areas whilst elsewhere it is largely the Conservatives who hold sway. This often means that one or other party has such an overwhelming majority that it feels no need to listen to anybody else.

Surely, when the majority party cannot really lose a vote, it is even more important to properly consider any idea or proposal which comes from somebody else, rather than just reject it out of hand?

The root of the problem at local level began about a decade ago with the move towards cabinet government and away from the traditional committee system in which matters were properly debated, in public, by councillors of all parties. Now, important decisions are made, often in private, and subsequently nodded through by one small group of people.

I guess that most people don’t even realise what is happening to our “democracy” and just accept it. They say that a nation gets the government it deserves, in which case the outlook is, in my view, not too good.

Alan Lovell

The Hamlet

Climping