CAN anyone give me an update on democracy? Sixty years ago I was given to understand it was a system where a country and people were governed by the people, for the people, based on the will of the majority.

If the majority want a referendum on the EU, a stop to immigration and foreign aid, harsher prison sentences, capital punishment and other issues, why does it not happen? We select 650 MPs based on a manifesto and a number of promises that seem to mean nothing. Too many voters support the party that their parents and grandparents did; the parties count on this and abuse it.

Important elections are coming up. The time has come to make a stand. Remind Cameron, Clegg, Miliband and the rest that our opinion is just as important as theirs. He who pays the piper should call the tune. What we have at the moment is not a one-man dictatorship but one shared by 650 MPs who can take 63 million of us in any direction they wish.

C Rowe, Oakwood Close, Church Fenton, York.