UK’S membership of EU has long been a thorn in side of British prime ministers

The flaw in Bill Jamieson’s account of political crises over the last 170 years ought to be apparent to any democrat (Perspective, 6 December). He was writing in the main about periods when universal suffrage was, at best, a distant dream.

The regular replacement of one prime minister by another could be explained by the fact that parliament was regarded as a place for elites with little accountability to the people. Riots were once described by the late Martin Luther King Jr as “the protest of the unheard”.

It wasn’t easy in the 19th century for citizens and workers to identify with representatives in parliament. Hardly any of them had a direct say in who those representatives were. It is hardly surprising that they occasionally took to physical protests.

It was surprising that Bill Jamieson did not see the current Brexit crisis in more modern terms. No fewer than seven prime ministers, including Theresa May, have had their time in office ruptured by the question of British membershipoftheeuropeanunion in the last 60 years. They range from Harold Mcmillan, whose bid for entry was thwarted by President de Gaulle, to David Cameron, who had to concede a referendum as a result of the rise of UKIP.

It includes Edward Heath, who took Britain into the European Community without a referendum in 1973 but was ousted in an election just over a year later. Both Margaret Thatcher and John Major were unable to manage internal party strife over membership and fell from office.

Harold Wilson worked hard to manage internal Labour Party dissent over the matter. It plainly exhausted him and he resigned just nine months after the poll that reaffirmed EEC membership in 1975. All of this prompted a crisis of one kind or another.

It is reassuring to know they were resolved by democratic, parliamentary means but depressing that the issue of membership is likely to remain unresolved for decades to come.

BOB TAYLOR Shiel Court, Glenrothes