Parliamentary sovereignty
Sir: Mr R. L. Travers would appear to believe that Mr Powell and 'his adherents' accept that the same degree of (parliamentary) sovereignty exists in the European Community countries as in Britain. As the Irishman replied when asked the way to a neighbouring village, " Firstly, I wouldn't start from here."
Addressing a meeting in Brussels on January 24, 1972, Enoch Powell spelled opt the real differences and the following short quotation should be sufficient to make plain how great these are:
" . . . The uniqueness of Parliament does not lie in its origins. Those we share with the feudal period of most of the countries of South Western Europe, most notably perhaps with Aragon and Castile. Its uniqueness lies in its virtually uninterrupted exercise of sovereignty through the centuries, so that in the modern world of written constitutions and artificially erected representative assemblies there is no other nation which is one with its parliament as we are. Among all the countries of Europe there is no other of which it could be said that its history would be unintelligible, almost non-existent, if the history of its parliament were removed.
"Above all because we have no written constitution, the unrestricted sovereignty of parliament is the ultimate guarantee of our freedom, both collectively and individually: if the words could ever be used ' Parliament must do this,' or 'Parliament cannot do this,' it would be the sign, and would be understood to be the sign, that both our liberties and our independence had lost their guarantee."
I have yet to hear or read a convincing argument against the facts which that extract contains.
Bee Cart hew B Flat, 7 Park Road, East Twickenham, Middlesex.
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