Voting

However, I feel we need to go further and have a total overhaul of the way we are governed.

Our so-called elected representatives have more than adequately demonstrated their total lack of integrity in looking after their constituents' needs: for example, the European Constitution, post office closures, the West Lothian Question, Barnett Formula and immigration just to name a few.

For the first time in my adult life I will be withholding my vote at the next General Election as I feel that this is the only way I can register my dissatisfaction with the current incumbents at the asylum of Westminster/nanny state. I wish that all voters would also do this so that peaceful change can happen.

I fear that the way we are heading is covered by this quote I saw recently: "The difference between a welfare state and a totalitarian state is only a matter of time".

M Hawkins, Langley Park, Durham.

THERE has recently been a lot said in HAS about the failures of our political system, but earlier correspondents seem to have missed a central point - without change to the system of voting, we will be as unable to change things for the better as we have been unable to stop things getting into their present sorry state.

New Labour once promised that it would, once in power, install a more democratic system of voting. But as soon as it was in power it quickly forgot this promise, no doubt because it realised the power that the current system gives it.

There is something that we can do about it, though. We can all get involved in demanding that we get the voting system that we deserve, rather than the one that the politicians want to keep. Visit http://www.makevotescount.org.uk/ to find out how.

Tony Pattison, Darlington