OUR current “democratic” system, which we seem to think will be joyfully accepted in the Middle East and elsewhere, has some serious flaws.

Periodically, we have elections where we are invited to vote for the candidate of our choice who we optimistically hope will represent our wishes and views. Unfortunately, the candidate will, if elected, take the party line and, in general, vote the way his party tells him.

Very rarely will an MP have had a “real” job where he has achieved anything substantial in the real world outside politics.

As a result we have a system where the MP lives in a Westminster bubble where constituents’ wishes and needs rarely intrude.

Witness the surprise in Westminster when the vast majority of constituencies voted to be out of Europe.

This detachment from the real world is evident in the endemic inefficiency which is characteristic of local authorities and the NHS.

The public do not want closures of valued facilities such as the Lambert, in Thirsk, nor reduction of services at the Friarage, in Northallerton, but the NHS bureaucracy is wedded to centralisation under the guise of cost reduction which will never be realised.

The public want an efficient NHS and local authority system doing what is necessary without unnecessary bureaucracy.

Chris Wright, Thirsk