Last week the Coalition Government generously granted the electorate a referendum on how in future we elect our MPs.

The AV vote, which would have offered voters and the smaller parties a greater degree of democracy, failed to resonate, so the first past the post system remains.

However, the AV vote was merely an expensive side-show to the referendum that the Liberal Democrats, Labour and the Conservatives have all promised us and then conveniently reneged upon, knowing that they would lose.

The people who rule our everyday lives are the unelected EU commissioners who are now responsible for most of our laws, not our elected representatives in Westminster, despite what Cameron and co may say.

Until we are granted this vital referendum for our future, it will remain an affront to democracy.

Philip Griffiths, North West chairman, UK Independence Party.