THE appalling advice (LT, May 2) to vote NO to voting reform “if they can be bothered” will doubtless have been of great comfort to the political establishment. The way we vote today was devised in the 19th century for a badly educated electorate.

We are now more prosperous and better educated, used to the freedom of making choices in our everyday lives.

We deserve greater choice in our politics as well.

We should not have to sign away our democratic rights with an X, the mark of illiteracy.

We should no more expect to use a Victorian voting system than we would expect to travel to work on a Victorian steam train.

An election should never be portrayed as a competition or a game of winners and losers.

David Green, Hartwood Road, Southport.