We need Lords

The Brexiteers promised to restore Parliamentary Sovereignty, but need lessons on the meaning of the words. This is true of Liam Fox, who insists on referring to the Lords as unelected and as defying the will of the people.

Our democracy evolved with two houses of Parliament – Lords and Commons. Parliament and the judiciary have the right to limit the powers of the executive. As Lord Acton once explained: “All power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” So executive power always needs to be restrained. It is just as well nowadays that this principle has made ministers answerable to Parliament, otherwise few of the present government would have had to resign and disgraceful conduct would have had no bounds. Democracy has to be protected from men who simply sloganeer about it and yet make vitriolic attacks on the judiciary and Parliament. In his long years as a Parliamentarian, Liam Fox has never sought to change our democratic system. Now, while claiming to restore Parliamentary Sovereignty, his emotive language actually subverts it.

ANDREW VASS Corbiehill Place, Edinburgh

Liam Fox hailed the Brex- it referendum as a triumph for democracy. According to him the UK could run its own affairs without the intervention of the pesky EU. Rule Britannia! That is, of course, until the UK legislature does something he doesn’t like.

May I suggest he takes the House of Lords to the European Court of Human Rights, where he might get a decision he finally agrees with? D MITCHELL

The Glebe Cramond, Edinburgh