Who Asked EU For Advice?

Nile Gardiner, writing in the Telegraph, posts on a letter sent to the Governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger, by the new EU Ambassador to Washington, Joao Vale de Almeida, who requests that the death penalty not be imposed on a convicted kidnapper, murderer and rapist on September 29, who isn’t even from Europe.

In his post Gardiner makes an extremely valid point:

"I don’t recall Washington ever signing up to the Treaty of Lisbon or the European Convention on Human Rights, or the United States Congress rubber-stamping the ludicrously named European External Action Service."

For a 'state' that has 'a Roma' problem (yes, the EU stinks!) to instruct another country on how they should manage their society is surely the height of diplomatic discourtesy, especially when couched in the terms that this letter is written.

Anyway, rather deliciously, the problem of the death penalty is going to rear its head right on the doorstep of the EU. In this regard I refer you to this post by The Anger Of A Quiet Man who reports that signatories are being gathered for a referendum on the restoration of the death penalty in Switzerland.

The example of Switzerland is how democracy should be and this is brought home when one considers that our MPs are supposed to represent the people's views - yet how often does an MP ask his electorate when a vote is held in Parliament on what is called a matter of conscience - witness, for example when the abolition of the death penalty was debated.

Until such time as referenda are the norm, MPs realize they are but the voice of the people, that voters are the instigators and controllers of any re-call system, that a government is only responsible for those matters delegated to them by the people and that their authority is not theirs, but that of the people, democracy is surely dead in this country.