Is there any point in voting at a General Election?

Given that most parliamentary candidates have to be approved by their political party hierarchies, it will be apparent that their loyalties to their constituents and their party are likely to be somewhat divided at the very outset.

Once they are elected and become a constituency Member of Parliament (MP), that distinction becomes ever more tenuous, given the 'presidential' style of government that has developed since New Labour came into power in 1997.

The Prime Minister (PM) is elected by his fellow Party MPs and the electorate have no say in who is appointed to that powerful office of State. The PM then appoints his Cabinet from among his MPs, and those selected Cabinet Ministers rely entirely on the patronage and goodwill of the PM for their tenure of office - and their future careers.

Government policy is largely formulated by the PM and his close advisers, who often are not Cabinet Ministers, or indeed - even MPs, and so-called 'spin doctors' abound. Much government policy thus formulated is rubber-stamped by the Cabinet, and passed to the Whips' Office with clear instructions to 'ease its passage' through the House.

The MPs of the majority party then dutifully troop through the lobby to which they have been directed by the Whips, and lo and behold Government policy is duly enacted.

Now how much of that procedure is to do with your local MP representing your wishes as a constituent? Well, in essence, it's about as much as twice times the square root of bugger all, but that is how it works and sadly, that is the 'democracy' in which we live.

So, 'is' there any point in voting at a General Election? No, not really; they won't take notice of anything thing we say, and we have to rely almost entirely on the Press to draw their failings to their attention, to have any influence on them at all.

The whole grubby self-serving system wants overhauling, and what better time to do it than now, following the 'pigs-in-troughs' expenses scandal, it must be out with the old and in with the new, including new parliamentary procedures - which serve the electorate and not the elected!