Our voice can be heard in election
The suggestion that peace in Europe these last 70 years or so is somehow simply due to the European Union is far from the truth. NATO, the military alliance, was formed some eight years before the Treaty of Rome that created what is now the EU, it did and does maintain the peace and effectively brought about the collapse of the Soviet Union. That then helped the proliferation of democracy to many of the former Warsaw Pact Eastern European countries.
Democracies very rarely go to war with each other – it is therefore fairer to say that the adoption of democracy is far more likely to have brought about the current decades of peace.
True to say, that yes, the two most imperialistic continental countries – Germany and France – were founder members of the now EU, and appear to have put aside their ambitions to conquer most of Europe by force. But there again many believe that what those two countries could not do by military might they are achieving by stealth aided by the unwitting acquiescence of many of the other member states.
Of course, the EU is less of a democracy than Britain is (and we have little to crow about) but come December 12 the people here can influence who will be running this country (unless we stay in the EU) but we will not have a say in who runs the European Union – the Commissioners are merely appointed by member states’ governments, neither elected or accountable to the EU citizens.
Edward Higginbottom, Shrewsbury
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