The most significant message of the recent elections was the low turnout of voters.

Politicians blamed this on the media, on the public, on current affairs, indeed on everything except themselves.

By blindly refusing to acknowledge that the parties themselves are responsible for this low turnout they reveal their failure to learn anything.

I thought long and hard about who to vote for and in the end felt unable to vote for anyone, because none of the parties represent anything distinguishable from each other.

For democracy to be meaningful parties must represent a choice of real alternatives, and it is none other than the politicians and their parties who have betrayed democracy in this regard.

Although it is evident that we are becoming an increasingly stupid and infantile nation, we still have the instinctive, intuitive cunning to smell the opportunistic spin-doctoring of our politicians. They underestimate our perceptiveness.

If the Conservatives wish to consolidate my vote they must oppose Tony Blair's pandering to populism and queasy idealism by taking the risk of being honest, truthful and realistic.

Tony Blair has turned democracy into a tart, led by the readership of the Sun newspaper. William Hague must have the courage to lead, rather than being led.

Then we will have a real choice, and the health of democracy will be restored.

Bryan de Villiers,

Lady Mill Garth,

Crombie Avenue,

Clifton,

York.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.