Madam, - A US study called "Corporate Political Contributions and Stock Returns" found that the companies that had given generously to political party funds had exceeded the market by 2.5 per cent a year over the past 25 years. It looked at 800,000 contributions from almost 2,000 companies, a fairly healthy sample.
Donations for which "no favours are asked and none given" seem to show up a serious flaw in the democracy which we in the Western countries are so keen to inflict on "corrupt" African states.
While the US exports its form of democracy to Iraq, in Ireland, we send troops to Chad to help build democracy there. Ireland is not an imperial country. We have a history of anti-colonialism.
We should stay out of military adventures in Africa and try and mend the hole in our democracy created by manifest bribery and corruption. - Yours, etc,
SÉAMUS BLAKE,
Youghal,
Co Cork.