Sir, – Ronan McCrea (“Undemocratic to let Tory members choose leader”, Opinion & Analysis, August 6th) argues that it is undemocratic to let Conservative party members have the final vote in the current leadership election of that party, and that MPs should have the final say, rather than party members.
Prof McCrea seems to be ignoring the fact that the Conservative parliamentary party in the House of Commons has already exercised substantial control over the race, by whittling down the list of names of candidates nominated to run in the leadership race to two, from a very wide field of an initial eight candidates who were nominated on July 12th (having gained the support of at least 20 other Conservative MPs). Ballots of Tory MPs then took place between July 13th and July 20th to whittle down these names.
Arguably the Conservative ballot is not fully democratic, as members should have been allowed to vote on the full initial slate of eight candidates, rather than a list of merely two who have been selected by MPs.
Prof McCrea notes that according to the late Peter Mair’s book Ruling the Void, political party membership in Europe has been in decline in recent decades, but Prof McCrea does not mention the discussion in Ruling the Void of the managerial/technocratic nature of politics in western democracies, particularly in the EU. Arguably it is this technocratic style of politics that has done most to cause the declining membership of mainstream political parties in the EU, and the technocratic solution urged by Prof McCrea of MPs having the final say in a leadership contest will only exacerbate, and not stem, this decline in membership.
Kamala Harris is a descendant of an Irish slave owner in Jamaica
Artist and shepherd Orla Barry: ‘Breeding animals is like making an artwork. You’re putting certain animals together’
Tactical analysis: Clare got their numbers right, but it’s hard to measure sheer magic
Aer Lingus has agreed to increase pilots’ pay as industry challenges mount
Prof McCrea rather pejoratively characterises Conservative party members as holding “highly unrepresentative views” and as being “extreme”, and this is part of his argument for not permitting such undesirables, as he sees them, of having the final say in a leadership race. On the contrary, it could be argued that Conservative party members (regardless of their substantive policy views), who take the time to campaign for the party and raise funds, are the people who are most engaged with party affairs, and who as the effective “shareholders” of the party, deserve and have the full right to elect the “leadership board” of the party.
Finally, the argument that government should be by an educated elite, rather than the barbarous mob, is of course not new, but has been part of political philosophy since the time of Plato (and of course has been criticised for its totalitarian leanings by liberals like Karl Popper). Why does Prof McCrea stop with MPs having the sole right to elect the leader of their political party? Surely only university graduates should be allowed to vote; that is, people who can really understand the complex political issues of today? Perhaps in an ideal society, only well-educated professors of constitutional law should have the privilege of voting? – Yours, etc,
JOSEPH G O’HANLON,
Dublin 3.