Letters to the Canary: what has happened to democracy and patriotism, and is the EU all bad?

The Canary is excited to share the latest edition of our letters page. This is where we publish people’s responses to the news and politics, or anything else they want to get off their chest. We’ve now opened the letters page up so anyone can submit a contribution. As always, if you’d like to subscribe to the Canary – starting from £2 a month – to support truly radical and independent media, then you can do that here:

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This week’s letters

This week we have people’s thoughts on governance, democracy, and patriotism, and one reader asks ‘is the EU really all that bad?’.

Why are we so badly governed?

I am convinced that we need to create a demand for radical constitutional reform in order address the many issues this country faces. It is no longer enough to say there is no public demand; we have to create it. So I hope some of you will respond to this. We need to spell out what reforms we need. I have set out my initial thoughts below:

Why We are So Badly Governed

We need to improve this. In particular I have dodged the question of how England relates to the rest of the UK. – comments welcome.

We next need to simplify the message and get it out there. Not my strong point.

We need to think about the process by which reforms are agreed and implemented.

David Smith, via email

Have we lost pride in our nation?

Politically I am definitely undecided of which party to vote for, I do not want right leaning – so both Tory and after a lifetime of voting Labour they are now also out. We still need a party to reverse the tragic privatisation that has happened and devastatingly hurt the country.

In my opinion just three politicians have seemed capable of being honest.

What Clement Attlee did for the country should not be forgotten or underestimated.

What Jeremy Corbyn could of done for the country was a missed opportunity which has now destroyed by Keir Starmer, who has made it into a right thinking Labour Party.

I believe Aneurin Bevan was a difficult politician but honest to his bones, his vermin speech was possible misjudged at the time but seems very apt in todays politics. The unfortunate truth is I am becoming indifferent to most political parties, being on the verge of 60 I am seeing the pride in the nation almost lost.

David, via email

In response to a Canary article on Greek protests here

As a journalist, you should be putting things in context. You know this, so sorry I pointed it out.

I am a progressive thinker, that joined the Labour Party to get Corbyn elected. I fully understand the oppressive nature of neoliberalism, the influence of it over EU policy making (state aid being the most salient topic). I fully understand how people are making money out of war machinery.

However, what articles such as the above do is ignore other relevant truths.

The EU is not purely about neoliberalism’s corporatocracy – in fact the eTUC is an active participant in EU policy, and as we in lovely Brexit Britain are seeing, life outside the EU is no less captured by corporate lobbying over reducing ‘red tape’, environmental protections.

And, sadly, a lot of the anti NATO voices – so called ‘peace keepers’ – are people like Trump – isolationist far right, playing into the agenda of Putin. And, in case you hadn’t heard, Putin is a fascist. Yes, he’s cosy with the kleptocrats, the Wagner mercenaries – he murdered the opposition. He has a pre Soviet, empire building agenda.

And no, it’s not ‘power to the people’ , because like all autocrats, he controls the state media. At least you can be critical of western powers, without fear of a knock on the door at midnight. Think about that carefully please.

So, be careful what you wish for, and are encouraging others to wish for, in your understandable desire to move to something new, from neoliberalism and western led military alliances. There are other versions of oppression out there too.

Anonymous, via email

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