In case readers here have missed it, my second Telegraph Blog contribution:

Most people reading this website will have been brought up to believe that "liberal democracy" is a natural state of affairs. It trundles along in the background for the British public as for the Foreign Office, without needing much attention.

We also were brought up (usually without realising it) to agree with Hayek that only free markets and free voters deliver the free information which allow modern society to work.

Hayek was surely right over the long term. Goodbye USSR. But what about the medium term? Or short term?

What if the sheer complexity of decisions facing national leaders in a democracy combines with greedy or ignorant or pig-headed voters to produce completely stupid results? Could autocracy plus modern IT in practice look more rational and efficient (and therefore more “moral" or at least more credible) at taking strategic decisions, such as not running up state borrowing far beyond the credible capacity of the state to repay its debts?

… You don’t have to be a raving Eurosceptic (although of course that helps) to have profound, urgent misgivings about the way the eurozone crisis is eroding European democracy, including our own. The Greek referendum announcement is bad news for manifold practical reasons. Maybe a referendum won’t in fact happen. But given the steep collapse Greece now faces, is asking voters to make strategic choices for inevitable sacrifices so unwise an idea?

Bottom line?

I spent most of my professional diplomatic career in one way or the other working hard to build a decent, peaceful democratic Europe. It turns out that the specific model chosen by the continental EU elites is a moral and (worse) philosophical failure.

Am I alone staring at this dangerous disaster and asking myself a painful question: “How do I withdraw my consent from being governed like this?"

Some vivid comments (over 300 and rising), not all humming the same tune:

Charles Crawford? where did he come from comedy central? he makes me laugh, Crawford there is no democrasy son because we were denied a referendum by our political scum,tell us all Crawford,when was the last time the EU accounts were signed off? come on,theres a good lad.
Here here Mr Crawford: Very well written and, in my opinion, irrefutable.
A superb piece of work which rings so true. Events over the past ten years or so, and even more recently, those over the last week have convinced me we do not live in a democracy in the UK and certainly not in the EU… 

Charles, very thoughtful piece…If the electoral rules required voters to display some knowledge of the issues at stake I am quite sure more than half the voters who currently vote would be disqualified. I say this having knocked on thousands of doors at elections over three decades and been thoroughly depressed at the sheer pig ignorance of the majority of voters.

Very few few MPS are intellectually qualified to discuss let alone decide the crucial questions raised by the Ambassador. Searingly solid article,Sir.
I know of various people who have been beaten back from writing for national media by the sheer venom and abuse emitted by assorted commenters. So far, within tolerable limits…