Sir, – We have seen recently that anyone, with or without a vote, could hire an ex minister at £3,000 a day to influence Government actions.

Now I don’t have that sort of money, just a cross on a piece of paper.

My mother in law lives in a key West Yorkshire marginal. I could argue her vote has even more worth than £3,000 because she may the one to decide who is Prime Minister.

But I live in the safest constituency for the Conservative Party in Britain. Whether I vote for or against the sitting MP it makes not one iota of difference, my voice counts as nothing.

In the absence of a proportional representation system where a vote really can contribute to the make up of Parliament – a soupcon of Green perhaps – is it no wonder that people who feel disenfranchised will vote in a way to bring maximum return for it by voting for an extreme party. At least they’ll get some headlines in return.

In my lifetime both the major parties have had several goes at running the country and we’ve eventually thrown them out when they failed, strangely only to give them second and third chances.

There must be a better way to elect a Government than the very few whose votes count having the choice between the ones who failed this time or the ones who failed before and who anyway will decide policy based on how much somebody can pay.

JOHN LOADER West Witton, Leyburn