Sir, – The recent local government reforms mean that we will have fewer local representatives. Local democracy is being gutted. Increasingly democracy is being bypassed. Power is moving into the hands of the experts. Our freedom is under attack.
After the second World War, both left and right supported the mixed economy. Things were not perfect, but the era of social democracy or the social market was better than the free market fundamentalism we are living in today. The post-war era gave the world greater liberty and social justice.
Can we recreate this post-war consensus? I believe that if we don’t protect individual liberty, we are sleep-walking into a police state. – Yours, etc,
JOHN O’BRIEN,
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Inchnagree,
Buttevant,
Co Cork.