Madam, - The Convention on the Future of Europe has proven to be a shocking waste of European taxpayers' money. After hundreds of man-years of effort, the delegates are clearly unable to agree on anything and over a thousand amendments are being proposed by the various parties involved. Among other things the constitution imposes an obligation to "explore space"! It is interesting to compare all this with the experience in the United States.
In the years before 1776 representatives of the 13 British colonies met and agreed on what became the constitution of the US. They faced many of the same issues that EU countries do today but focused their energies on coming up with a document that represented their common shared values. The resulting constitution can be made to fit on two sides of paper and has endured with minor changes for over 200 years. One of the amendments removed the entertaining but impractical provision that the vice-president be the second-placed candidate in the presidential election.
During this time Europe has been riven by constitutional chaos. France alone has had five republics, a directorate and the Vichy regime. Even now the Irish Republic changes its over-detailed constitution with roughly five times the frequency the US does and Britain has yet to get round to writing one!
The best thing the EU Convention delegates could was to study copies of the US constitution and asked themselves what needed to be changed apart from the name at the top. Instead, they ignored the best example of what they were trying to do and created a nightmare shopping-list of obligations and constraints for future generations. - Yours, etc.,
DAVID ROLFE,
Rathmines,
Dublin 6.
Madam, - George W. Bush started a war carrying his religious convictions on his sleeve, a conflict paid for by the greenback entitled "In God we trust". During that war the battered Iraqi regime was represented by a minister of information who included the word Inshallah (Allah willing) in every other sentence he uttered. God fighting God!
God/Allah would be better served if he/she was left out of the preamble to the EU constitution, and so would the generations who come after us. - Yours, etc.,
PATRICK HENNESSY
Bangkok,
Thailand.