No matter how we vote, we’ll still have too many politicians

THE referendum on AV gets closer by the day. Both camps are looking for my vote. But they won’t get it. I will abstain, and urge others to do likewise.

The reason is simply this: whichever way the vote goes, you still perpetuate a system where we are having to pay a myriad of supernumerary representatives in the Palace of Westminster.

In the two houses on Capitol Hill, America has 535 elected senators/representatives.

The UK has one fifth the population of the USA, so we should have pro rata, 107 members in our two houses: say 72 in the Commons, 35 in the Lords. (Quite a realistic number given the over-abundance of councillors in the UK: folk who conduct their own surgeries and thus can easily report to a regional MP).

Instead of which we have – wait for it! – an astonishing 1,442 members in our two equivalent houses, 650 in the Commons, and 792 in the Lords. Well over 13 times the American rate.

Thus, to vote yay or nay, is just perpetuating a nonsensical drain on the nation’s resources.

Don’t think the Arab spring is something that only happens far away. The revolution will be here next, unless something is done PDQ about this sheer number of parasites.

From: Hilary Andrews, Nursery Lane, Leeds.

WELL, the AV vote is nearly upon us. If implemented, it will inevitably lead to more coalition governments.

Given the short time this present one has been going and the amount of condemnation it has had from the general public, could AV possibly work?

People don’t seem to realise that no one party can fulfil its pre-election promises if it has to co-operate with other parties with different views.

This has already led to protests in the streets from students who thought the Lib Dems could get them free university tuition and public sector workers who thought their gold plated pensions and early retirement age could last forever when the country is virtually bankrupt and we are on the verge of needing assistance from Germany and France. Our present system ain’t broke so it doesn’t need fixing.