[Two Part answer]
No, the public should not decide defence strategy, sp. But they should decide who does and if the leeching of Parliamentary power continues they soon will not be able to. This a step back from the decisions, it’s about who takes them on behalf of the people of the UK and politicians should not decide that.
Yes rojash, for the moment we do choose our government (well, to be pedantic we choose MPs and it is they who choose a government, but that does not matter for the sake of this debate).
However, the range of activities where that government’s authority is being eroded grows almost by the day. I could not possibly go into them all here but here’s a few for consideration:
- It has no influence over immigration from EU countries (which themselves are set to grow in number).
- It has no authority over so-called “carbon reduction” policy which itself dictates energy policy to a large degree.
- It cannot allow 60w tungsten lightbulbs to be manufactured in or even imported into the UK
- It cannot say that “Cornish” pasties may be made in Devon.
To retreat from flippancy, there are also large numbers of areas including finance, defence and foreign policy where there currently exists the power of veto by individual nations. However, as with most things European, the option to veto is gradually and quietly being removed from many of them so that a common “EU” policy will emerge, as always, by stealth. Each accession of power just “a little bit more” than has already been forfeited “so it’s no big deal”. But when you look at the start and end position it is a very big deal indeed.