Dissent can be valuable

Re: U.K. chaos as parties begin to fracture, John Ivison, April 16

John Ivison writes that party discipline “protects us from political chaos.” To the extent that parties attract people around broad groupings of principles, he is right. But broad principles cannot address every situation.

Winston Churchill, when just an ordinary MP, steadfastly opposed Conservative prime minister Stanley Baldwin’s politically popular policy of appeasement toward Nazi Germany. Churchill warned that Germany was arming itself and that Great Britain must arm as the surest way to prevent war. He incurred the wrath of his own party. But he was right. The consequences would have been catastrophic had he been silenced. There must be room for the respectful airing of dissenting views by party members, or a more insidious, harmful chaos will result.

Phil Green, Mississauga, Ont.

Mark Norman