SIR - The Conservatives may be congratulating themselves upon the election of their new leader, but nothing is going to change. Half the nation will continue to ignore elections and our House of Commons will continue to be an irrelevance.

Mr Cameron may have lifted the Conservatives in the opinion polls. He may appear as a shiny new leader, untouched by the malignant sleaze of the past, but the electorate has a long memory. It will not forget the mounted police riding over the miners, or the State's army bloodying the miners with truncheons, nor the five million unemployed, or the £20bn the Conservatives lost on the so-called "exchange rate mechanism".

In reality, Mr Cameron is no more than a very new chip off a very old block. He is shackled by the vested interests that control our politics, just like failed President Blair and his Iraqi albatross. That's why Parliament long ago stopped speaking for the people.

We want Parliament returned to us so that it represents the political complexion of the country at large and MPs elected by proportional representation. But such fair elections will never be allowed here. They would end the Labour and Conservative "magic roundabout" that has guaranteed political power to both parties since the end of the Second World War.

N TAYLOR,

Worcester.