GRAHAM Booth UKIP (Letters, January 16) has a sense of humour when he claims we should defend our ?time-honoured tradition of a parliamentary democracy?.
Notwithstanding women under 30 only voted since 1929, is this the same imperial parliament in which Scottish MP Calum MacDonald is still allowed to vote on English matters even though his constituency is further away than Brussels?
Calum MacDonald sits at Westminster because he got 5,924 Scottish votes (45% share of a 60.3% turnout), 35 votes fewer than the third-placed losing candidate in Torridge and West Devon constituency 2001 who had 10.7% of a 70.5% turnout, and 16,356 fewer votes than the second-placed losing candidate who had a 40% share.
Likewise, wasn?t the American War of Independence about ?no taxation without representation?? Today English taxpayers pay over 3p of the basic rate of tax to the Scottish Parliament for which we have no representation; what democracy?
The UK?s gross loss may be £20-billion, but the net loss is £6-billion. The English nation?s net loss to Scotland is £9-billion, net loss to Ulster is £4.5-billion, net loss to Wales £4-billion and net loss to the Commonwealth £825-million.
The UKIP claim they have many policies (Mr J Arnott Letters, January 16). It is a shame that they do not derive from certain fixed principles of reason, because if they did it would be the British Union and Commonwealth they would be trying to withdraw England from, not our United Kingdoms of Europe.
Bryan Gillard
Pound Park
Okehampton