SIR – What a great time for UKIP. The European project is in tatters and the voices of euroscepticism uttered over the decades now sound like the clarion call to wake up and remember we are British.

But while the Farage army can expect to gain seats at the local election it is likely to be bronze at the 2015 contest.

Like two great tribes the people mainly dance to the tune of the Conservatives or Labour. Old allegiances and the campaigning superforce of the main parties gaurantee the loudest voices.

People say things such as “I’ve always been a Tory” or “My dad was Labour and my grandad before him” as if a generational baton was being passed on.

UKIP's main achievement is in restoring a bit of realism to the dangers of surrendering sovereignity and the mindblowing cost of our membership.

Nigel Farage talks the talk and is razor sharp as a good leader requires but despite the exciting shot in the arm that UKIP represents, the real tragedy is that our main parties are simply competing to be the best managers of decline.

Three tall men in suits who were spoon-fed free market economics speak largely the same political langauge. None of them has the stuff that will excite historians and fill books or change the nation’s destiny.

What is needed is for more people to engage politically, increase the talent pool and contribute to change – not to passively give the thumbs up to one or the other party every four or five years.

People get the Government they deserve and if everyone assumes they have to put up with what is doled out they are the authors of disappointment and the accomplices of complacency.

Such an assumption is to endanger democracy itself.

ANDREW BROWN

Worcester