Sir, – Vincent Browne (Opinion, December 28th) reckons that unelected technocrats represent the best form of government.
He is basically giving up on representative democracy. How sad. How wrong. There has only been representative democracy, starting in a America and a handful of western European countries since the 19th century.
It is by no means a perfect system. It’s human. It’s flawed. It’s currently deeply flawed. But it’s an awful lot better than anything else that’s ever been tried.
Just ask the people of the former Soviet Union. Or North Korea. Or Congo. Or Somalia. Or Iran. Or Syria, etc. The current crisis may just represent a great opportunity to create realrepresentative democracy that puts the interests of the people first.
There are role models we can copy – Switzerland and the Nordic countries especially. But we can’t just give up.
We owe it to ourselves, to our children and grandchildren. We owe it to our island and the world.
There are plenty of talented, clever, idealistic people in this land who could create a better future. Alas, I doubt any of them are currently among our parasitical self-serving elite. But no business or sports club would allow itself to keep using a failed model.
We can have Lincoln’s “government of the people by the people, for the people”. Or as John Bruton described modern Ireland, “Government of the people, by the Civil Service, for the elite”. I know which system I want, and I know which system works.
Enough despair from Vincent Browne. Time for some hope, and some vision. – Yours, etc,