I REFER to Kay Flatten’s viewpoint comparing the USA to the EU in the Review (March 4).

I am surprised that Ms Flatten, a US citizen, has such little understanding of the history and make up of her native land.

Comparing the EU, a dream land imagined by those aiming to construct a federal United States of Europe from groups of multi-ethnic, multi-lingual, and multi-faith tribes that were warring until recent history, and the US that came out of the American Revolution and War of Independence with a clear constitution and expression of the will of the people is bonkers.

The US came out of the original British North American colonies and, in essence, is a child of the British Empire.

Mainly English-speaking and dominated by the Anglo-Saxon Protestant work ethic that found new freedoms and new opportunities in taming a new-found continent later joined by oppressed people escaping hunger, persecution, and chaos that prevailed in continental Europe.  

Coming to specifics, the EU is far from a federation of states in the US’ image: it lacks a coherent constitution accepted by the people that live in Europe.

The farce of an EU failing to dam the flood of refugees marching in from the Middle East and various countries erecting barricades shows that the EU is a long way away from achieving its ideals of a federal state.

The EU’s roots were founded on bringing down trade and customs barriers – the original coal and steel union – and later working towards a unified currency and central government sharing some strategic tasks – a project that is coming apart even as it is started. 

It is a no-brainer that a union of people without common political, economic, social, and defence policies and legal system will never manage to have a stable currency or to protect its people from external threats.

The people of Europe and, more importantly, people in Britain have no clue as to what their MEPs do in Europe or their relevance to life in Britain.

The Presidential system in the US with executive, legislative and judicial branches under a constitution lays down a clear structure with elected representatives to Congress and the state assemblies, also to the local communities.

Almost every public office from the President down to the local sheriff and dog-catcher is elected by the people they are accountable to with local states and communities managing their allocated responsibilities.

The Federal government is responsible for national economic and social policies, currency, banking and regulation of wide ranging national affairs, security, defence and justice systems, etc.

The President has wide ranging powers and the federal government and its agencies have teeth to bring order if the states fail to deliver their allocated tasks.

Above all, the constitution, and the federal justice system, is the supreme authority.

Ms Flatten should compare that to the rabble that spend our money in Brussels, fail to post accounts in a transparent manner and which most people in Britain think is a waste of time.

Britain’s North American colonies fought a war of independence to break away from a system that taxed them without due representation.

British people deserve no less and the EU has been an imposition brought about under false pretences through a previous referendum and its powers expanded through successive treaty changes without consultation or approval of the people that are affected.

– Venk Shenoi, Blaisdon.