Sham democracy by Bush and Blair

THE EDITOR: Some fifty years ago, Senator Joseph McCarthy shamed democracy by carrying out a witch-hunt against members of the American movie industry for being sympathetic to other isms than his own hard line Republicanism. Directors, authors, script-writers, actors etc were hauled before the Senate’s Un-American Activities Committee. The careers of many were killed off, and one or two driven to suicide. This type of sham democracy has now drifted across the Atlantic to Britain, spawning the Blair Witch Project against the media and free expression.

The BBC has been slandered, and scientist Dr David Kelly has been persecuted to death. When Bush and Blair are shown going to church with bibles in their hands, we do not see the copies of Machiavelli hidden between the covers. Perhaps we all need to understand the true meaning of that overused and ill-defined word ‘Democracy’, that lays dying in the vault of Voltaire: “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.”

M A KERR
Woodbrook