NORMALLY your columnist Denis Kilcommons is literally both short and sweet and sometimes funny. But in his piece on April 25 he changes tack completely when he seriously urges us, young and old, to exercise our right to vote.

He goes on to say that if we bothered to vote “maybe we could make a difference and put in power the politicians and parties at local and national level....”

I don’t know about national level, but I do realise that at local level democracy flew out of the window when Mr Heath adopted the Maude Report and in 1973 Huddersfield began to be governed, not by its borough council nor even its metropolitan council but by an inner Cabinet (none of whom at the moment even lives in Huddersfield, as the leader admits).

It must be 40 years ago when the old council had the idea to build a pavilion in Greenhead Park. But the citizens would have none of it and it never got off the ground. That was democracy.

Now, in an Examiner poll 90% of today’s citizens vote to leave our excellent St George’s Square severely alone. But what is going to happen? We’re going to get our fancy fountains come what may, whether the majority like it or not. That’s not democracy and, sorry Denis, but for all that I’m of an age that fought for democracy, I’ll be keeping my feet up and watching the snooker on May 1 instead, of – for the first time in my long life – not exercising my hard-fought right to vote. There’s just, in my humble opinion, no point.

Austin Holroyd

Almondbury