Hysteria and misinformation don’t help debate

In response to your letters page of December 17:

Lloyd Allen tells us that our democracy is a sham as we have an unelected House of Lords. I’m no friend of the Lords in its current form. However to compare its advisory and confirmatory work on Bills that pass through our elected chamber with that of the EU Commissioners, none of whom have ever been elected in a competitive contest and yet drive all the legal processes of the EU, is absurd. Knocking our figurehead as unrepresentative and unelected reveals a rather warped sense of how government works and is a complete irrelevance in this respect.

Whatever referenda were in the past, Mr Allen, we were told in 2016 that the result would stand before we voted, so advisory it was not. Also suggesting that the ongoing objection to the 1975 referendum result to remain in the EEC was at the same level that we are currently getting from Remainerland is totally disingenuous. It took 41years to have another bite despite the morphing of the EEC in several stages to become the EU, which included important changes of

constitution about which we were allowed no say. As we have yet to experience the outcome of the 2016 referendum, it beggars belief that we should consider another one only four years later.

It sounds like Mr Lewis is in favour of Proportional Representation. How that would work on a yes/no decision is rather hard to imagine. He should also remember that for every successful system of PR as in Germany there are lots which lead to a shambles and no decisions.

Mr Duff is again showing his Socialist slip, with his membership of Democracy in Europe Movement and its desire to ‘reform’ the EU, on the back of ‘the folly of neoliberal economics’. If he wants membership of a sclerotic mess, he is welcome. To think that the EU is open to reform is beyond naivety. Its stance on negotiation is in itself proof of the rigid orthodoxy that lies at the heart of its ambition – it wants us to fail, and sadly, with the help of the likes of Messrs Allen and Duff it might just achieve its aim, if we ease up on our resolve to leave

As for Ed McConnell’s pun about the price of brie, as another, veiled homily to the

EU, can I say that anything that comes easy, generally isn’t worth having.

I’m happy to wait for my vintage, three-year-old Cheddar or Gouda, which proves the effort and wait is well worth it. In the case of the latter, if it involves duty in the short term, and an extra day in customs, so be it.

I’m all for continuing the debate with anyone who wants to, but can we do it without stooping to the hysterical delivery of misinformation and irrelevance as was exhibited by last week’s efforts.