IN the run-up to the election we have often heard that those who do not vote are 'apathetic' and somehow pose a threat to 'democracy.' These arguments, like cliches, have little merit.

Some of those who do not vote are keenly interested in politics, but are repelled by the low calibre of modern politicians. Today's politicians seem to be little more than self-serving careerists whose principles consist essentially of saying what will win them the most popularity.

Elected politicians know that every vote, regardless of who it is for, legitimises the system in which they all seem to do very well, thank you. But whatever happened to the politicians of principle, character and vision? Where are the Gladstones, the Palmerstons, the Churchills, the Attlees of today?

Whoever we vote for, the State will continue to dominate every aspect of British life and to appropriate around 40 per cent of the country's GNP in the form of taxes. Taxation will always be high, because otherwise the politicians and bureaucrats would not be able to play their games of power and manipulation.

Sometimes we are told that people have died for democracy, but in World War II, for example, the average British soldier was simply borne along by events. Few of them fought with the idea of 'saving democracy,' not least because in the Depression of the 1930s the concept would have meant little to them.

In some respects British democracy is a charade. We should therefore think very carefully about whether our political system is as worthy and 'democratic' as we like to believe.

J COLMAN, Herbert Street, Burnley.

IN the run-up to the election we have often heard that those who do not vote are 'apathetic' and somehow pose a threat to 'democracy.' These arguments, like cliches, have little merit.

Some of those who do not vote are keenly interested in politics, but are repelled by the low calibre of modern politicians. Today's politicians seem to be little more than self-serving careerists whose principles consist essentially of saying what will win them the most popularity.

Elected politicians know that every vote, regardless of who it is for, legitimises the system in which they all seem to do very well, thank you. But whatever happened to the politicians of principle, character and vision? Where are the Gladstones, the Palmerstons, the Churchills, the Attlees of today?

Whoever we vote for, the State will continue to dominate every aspect of British life and to appropriate around 40 per cent of the country's GNP in the form of taxes. Taxation will always be high, because otherwise the politicians and bureaucrats would not be able to play their games of power and manipulation.

Sometimes we are told that people have died for democracy, but in World War II, for example, the average British soldier was simply borne along by events. Few of them fought with the idea of 'saving democracy,' not least because in the Depression of the 1930s the concept would have meant little to them.

In some respects British democracy is a charade. We should therefore think very carefully about whether our political system is as worthy and 'democratic' as we like to believe.

J COLMAN, Herbert Street, Burnley.