Letter: Conservatives miss the point on Brussels

Sir: Your leading article 'Big drama, narrow stage' (6 October) made great sense to one of those 'awful bureaucrats' working in Brussels. The debate in the Conservative Party has thrown up some unusual statements, none more so than that by Michael Spicer MP, stating at the Bow Group debate in Brighton that the UK was being ruled from Brussels by an unelected European Commission, Council of Ministers and Court of Justice.

I ask myself when will we see free elections for the Law Lords? The Council of Ministers is composed of ministers elected by their individual member states, and do they not represent their electorate in the same way that MPs represent their constituents in Westminster? As for the European Commission, it is the European Parliament which advocated, in the negotiations surrounding Maastricht, that each individual Commissioner should go before a selection committee of the EP in a similar fashion to the US Senate prior to their election.

Sadly, much of the debate in the Conservative Party is about whether you are for or against Europe altogether, not about how the UK can integrate better into a diverse community of member states.

Best wishes,

RAYMOND O'ROURKE

Brussels

7 October