I WOULD like to say thank you to the 192 South Swindon People who voted for me at the General Election last week.

As a first time independent candidate it was a very illuminating experience, not least to learn how mighty the main party campaign machines are, but also to realise that most people vote at the national level for parties and their leaders.

I was also interested to read Anne Snelgrove's comments about the re-elected Labour Government using the party whip harder because of the reduced majority. This epitomises the problems we have with democracy as one of your correspondents pointed out, this government has been elected by a small minority of the population.

The MPs are then forced to vote along party lines which further reduces the voice of the constituents.

After the election result, the Government (and Anne) stated that "they had been given a lesson by the people and need to listen more". We should hold them to it.

A Hayward

Sparcells, Swindon