Sir, – The issue of Sinn Féin’s policy of abstention from Westminster has been raised in recent correspondence in the context of the upcoming UK general election (Letters, May 24th and 27th). That policy is a negation of democracy.
Modern democracy began in the American Revolution almost 250 years ago with the slogan “no taxation without representation”. To refuse, for whatever reason, to represent the interests of the people who elect you in the forum in which the laws are made is an abandonment of the rights which democracy confers on those lucky enough to live in a democracy.
Nor is abstention in the best interests of the people who elect you. For example, Sinn Féin’s refusal to take their seats in Westminster in 1918 deprived Irish nationalists of any influence over the Government of Ireland Act 1920 and so facilitated the introduction of partition which (ironically?) created the circumstances which Sinn Féin argue justify its policy of abstention today. – Yours, etc,
FELIX M LARKIN,
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