Your editorial makes excellent points about President Donald Trump’s intention to increase the executive’s power (“Musk’s assault on the US federal bureaucracy”, February 11). Perhaps it could also have raised the alarm about UK constitutional arrangements.
For the UK executive has the powers that Trump desires but without the US checks and balances. Since parliament almost always votes along party lines, the government can set the rules for itself and change the constitution with a simple majority vote.
Keir Starmer is chief executive with a two-thirds parliamentary majority but only one-third of the votes cast. Trump at least has a proper mandate. The 2024 UK election turnout was 60 per cent, so the prime minister heads what Lord Hailsham called an “elective dictatorship” based on the votes of one-fifth of the electorate.
The US is in the midst of a constitutional crisis, but it is in the UK where constitutional dysfunction is most glaring.
Paul Mortimer-Lee
Purchase, NY, US