I have heard the argument " the EU is not democratic" so many times, that I sort of gave up arguing against it, until I realised that this particular argument is based on astounding ignorance about how our democracy in the UK works.
The standard line of attack I normally make is that our MEPs are elected on a proportional system, which means that, ironically, UKIP have one MP in the UK Parliament but 24 in the European Parliament (because the EU electoral system is more democratic than the British "first past the post" system).
So far so good. They then say "ah but the decisions are made by the EU Comissioners, and they are appointed, not elected!" Therefore - not democratic?
Actually when you think about it, this no different from the way it works in the UK. Most of the decisions in Government are made by ministers. None of them are directly elected to their posts. The Prime Minister is appointed by the Queen, the Government ministers from the Chancellor of the Exchequer downwards are appointed by the prime minister. In the EU the commissioners are appointed by the elected governments of the member states (one for each member state). The Commission is of comparative size to our cabinet, so what is the difference?
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