REGARDING your Insight report (LET, August 3) on apathy over casting votes at elections, is it that people are too idle, will not make the effort, are not informed enough, or have a leave-it-to-someone-else stance?

Or is it because candidates conduct the same old boring campaigns, with well-rehearsed punchlines and promises, many of them just pie in the sky?

The Euro elections were a farce. Most people knew nothing about the people who wanted to represent them and very few candidates got off their backsides to canvass.

All that people might know is that Euro-MPs are some of the highest-paid people around.

Having said that, my belief is that people should still make the time to vote.

I stop short of saying it should be compulsory, but if the percentage of voters keeps falling it might be worth considering.

The meagre turn-out at the last Euro election gave us so-called winners who gained seats without a total consensus of the British people.

We have a democratic system. Let us all support it and avoid regimes like the ones which have suppressed their populations.

K SOWERBUTTS (Mr), Southwood Drive, Baxenden.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.