Letter: The nations of Europe can't survive alone

Sir: Once again the Tory right intone their mantra of the European "democratic deficit" ("Grandees are just dinosaurs, snarls Tory right", 20 September).

Brussels may be bureaucratic and unwieldy. But what about this Tory government's own democratic deficit? Whitehall is not only bureaucratic but incompetent. Power has been centralised in and veiled behind appointed quangos.

The electorate, especially the young, are increasingly apathetic about voting and the stock of MPs is in free fall. Is the Tory right really interested in remedying the democratic deficits, or are they in fact just worried about power being transferred out of their own grubby hands into someone else's?

N D MARTIN-CLARK

London WC1