I ENJOY your weekly Getting to Know You article, especially the answer by Councillor Jack Bantoft when he stated his first pet hate was those non-voters who blame everything on the council or the Government . I am a non-voter and proud so to be. I make a

I ENJOY your weekly Getting to Know You article, especially the answer by Councillor Jack Bantoft when he stated his first pet hate was "those non-voters who blame everything on the council or the Government".

I am a non-voter and proud so to be. I make a calculated decision and choose not to vote. I do, however, pay a substantial amount of my earnings to the Chancellor, Gordon Brown. I also pay Council Tax, so I think I have the right to blame elected and unelected representatives running the Government and local council.

The current crop of politicians, with few exceptions, are mealy-mouthed hypocrites who never give a straight answer to a straight question.

Under this New Labour bunch the public are not permitted to make peaceful demonstration, so I ask you, Cllr Bantoft, what are the disgruntled voters and non-voters supposed to do?

When people who stand for election say what they mean and mean what they say, based on principle and integrity, I may wish to vote.

We have a so-called Labour Government, which presides over the imprisonment of pensioners who make a stand against the increase in their Council Tax. 'Two Jags' Prescott committed a similar act and when scrutinised by the media he was flippant and smug.

I am sure you are a hard working councillor, Cllr Bantoft, but please do not dismiss non-voters, some of whom make an intelligent and calculated decision not to vote.

We should adopt the system used in Ireland - the single transferable vote conjoined with proportional representation. This method opens up debate on single-policy issues giving the voter the power to choose without voting in policies they do not want, by default.

For example: the Lib Dems put forward an anti-Iraq War policy but I was not in favour of other policies in their manifesto. My vote therefore would not force politicians to act on that issue.

A recent poll showed that 80 per cent of the public want our Government to align with Europe not the USA with regard to the troubles in the Middle East.

I ask you, Cllr Bantoft, which of our main parties are worthy of my vote under the current electoral system?

JOHN BENNETT-COLLINS

Doddington