BARBARA Bates urges us all to use our vote (HAS, May 26) – an understandable plea, but rather futile.

Most MPs are returned to safe constituency seats; voting against the sitting MP or their party makes no difference. There may be an opportunity to unseat an MP who has behaved particularly scandalously in the expenses debacle, but they will probably have been deselected before the General Election. It is worth noting that most MPs have not behaved particularly scandalously.

No, most of our votes count for nothing. All those who voted in the North-East in the last election returned one Tory MP, one Liberal Democrat and 28 Labour MPs. Is that a fair reflection of our region’s political views?

It is so different in Ireland (both north and south) where the electoral system allows choice not only between parties, but also candidates within parties.

There will no effective democracy until there is reform of the electoral system (for both Lords and Commons). Let us have a system where every vote matters, then we will have a reason to vote. Until then, bother to vote if you like, but it is unlikely to make any difference.

Peter Wilson, Barnard Castle, Co Durham.