Political and business leaders in Faustian pact

The West needs a Churchillian figure.

Henry Ergas’s and Maurice Newman’s articles (“Are we headed towards high noon for democracy?”, 18/1) point to two inescapable facts: the failure of political leadership in the West and the concentration of wealth into fewer and fewer hands. As many commentators have stressed, the West’s elites have lost their moral and ethical compass.

Politicians deliver speeches with polished insincerity and business people seem interested only in profits. Both groups have a Faustian pact with the devil who gives them what they truly love: power and wealth.

It is certain that Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are the political parents of Donald Trump while the EU is the triumph of unrepresentative elites.

As Churchill stated: “No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.” Of course, Churchill was a leader and there is no one in the West today fit to tidy up his cigar stubs.

Jim Wilson, Beaumont, SA

Brexit undermines EU

It is not surprising that the EU is making it difficult for Britain to leave. Like any other man-made utopia in history — religious, social or political — eventually the powerful rise to the surface and call the shots, and if members don’t like it they can leave, or are expelled. Leaving undermines the power of the group and can negatively influence individual members.

In religious terms Brexit is not only heresy but apostasy. Britain won’t have its head severed, but the EU will do its best to send it to hell.

Elizabeth Moser, Newtown, Vic

The Remain campaign in the referendum forecast financial and economic ruin if Britain voted to leave the EU. Despite those predictions, the British voted to leave. Ever since, the Remain campaign to overturn that democratic decision has repeated the same forecasts of economic disaster.

These are emotional predictions of doom and gloom in an effort to scare the British into remaining in the EU. There are, and can be, no facts to support such forecasts because leaving the EU has never been done before.

Remain campaigns never address the reasons Britons voted to leave the EU — to leave the customs union, the European court system, regain control of British, fishing and agriculture, negotiate its own trade deals.

David Iggulden, Wentworth Falls, NSW

Respect Australia Day

It has been said that a people without the knowledge and respect of their past history, origin and culture, is much like a tree without roots.

With history being a series of events and practices from the past, which were the accepted norm for that time and place, it is not up to society to make judgments and apportion blame to those living today, for the actions of others from a bygone era.

Each of us has the responsibility to remember, acknowledge and learn from history, so that we can work at creating a society that reflects respect, fairness, trust, integrity, change and adaptability.

With Australia Day coming, debate will rage about the pros and cons of the reason and purpose for celebrating what is actually a significant day in our great country’s history.

In our society, where free speech is a fundamental right, the views expressed by opposing groups should reflect mutual respect and acceptance, rather than an opportunity for acrimony, hate and division.

It should be remembered at this time that the preservation of one’s culture does not require contempt or disrespect for another’s culture. On Australia Day, whichever way you decide to celebrate, allow others to exercise their choice.

Ian Macgowan, Ceduna, SA