“THE problems in our country stem from our lack of a written constitution,” says Christian Vassie. Not so.

The basis of the British constitution – and to a large extent of the (written) American constitution too – include Magna Carta, the Bill of Rights and, believe it or not, the American Declaration of Independence.

The acceptance of the Declaration by Britain is largely responsible for the fact that Canada, Australia and New Zealand and the rest attained self government peacefully, unlike all the revolutionary states of South America and elsewhere.

British constitutional law and the precedents laid out are just as comprehensive as those in the US. It is not true that the “lawyers… make [more] money from the absence of such a [written] document.” They make about the same in both places, so there is not much to choose on that score. However, when the constitution is pulled together in courses and textbooks British-style, it is sometimes easier to get rid of the dross.

Contrast (A) eliminating the obsolete constitutional right of the monarch to simply sign a death warrant to bump off a political opponent or an out-of-favour courtier, Henry VIII style, which was done very easily by letting the precedent lapse; with (B) the persistence of the absurd right to gun ownership which is written into the 2nd amendment of the US Constitution and is unmovable thanks to the Neanderthals of the National Rifle Association.

A video on US television recently showed a nine-year-old girl exercising her 2nd-amendment rights with a sub-machine gun, killing her instructor.

Brian A. Jones, Clinton Street. Brooklyn, New York.