I have watched the Brexit stalemate evolve from a national embarrassment into a national crisis. However, I always had faith that respect for our great democracy and its people would prove the rumours surrounding the wilful suppression of parliament and its democratic mandate unfounded.
With the prime minister’s announcement of his intention to prorogue parliament (Report, 28 August), I am left profoundly disturbed. There appears to be no insidious tactic or unscrupulous stratagem beneath the machinations of this far-right fringe Conservative, in name only, government, a government in name only. For what does it mean to live in a democracy where the democratically elected representatives of the people can be ignored for the advancement of the prime minister’s own agenda?
This is no longer a matter of remain v leave, or soft Brexit v hard Brexit, or people v parliament. Any democratic representative being silenced is an outrage; an entire parliament being tactically prorogued is an unacceptable challenge to the fundamental philosophy of democracy. These actions are those of a dictator ruling an autocracy and certainly is an unwelcome personal interpretation of “taking back control”.
Wherever MPs are on the Brexit spectrum, I implore them to stand against this gross misuse of power. For the first time in my life I fear for the future of this country should such a precedent be set.
Ben Filipinski
Hinckley, Leicestershire
• Could somebody please define democracy for me? I’m obviously misguided in my understanding. Currently, it’s democratic to follow the will of the minority of the people, that will being based on falsehoods and lack of information. It would be undemocratic to give the people a chance to confirm their decision now that they have had time to assess the true facts and implications. It’s democratic for our undemocratically elected PM to try to prevent the democratically elected representatives of the people from challenging decisions made by a minority of the government.
Is my understanding of democracy wrong or is undemocratic the new democratic?
Margaret Sargent
Newton Abbott, Devon
• It is timely to remind our MPs of Cromwell’s speech to parliament, 19 April 1653: “Ye sordid prostitutes, have you not defil’d this sacred place and turned the Lord’s temple into a den of thieves, by your immoral purposes and wicked practices? Ye are grown intolerably odious to the whole nation; you were deputed here by the people to get grievances redress’d, are yourselves become the greatest grievance.”
Graeme Innes-Johnstone
Elland, West Yorkshire
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