SIR – As an OAP who has just had 59p tax deducted at source from a derisory £2.96p annual interest on a Building Society account this week, I feel particularly aggrieved at the ‘non-dom’ tax-free status enjoyed by so many in the UK – allowed and encouraged by the Labour party, while the poor are taxed more and more!

However, Lord Ashcroft represents only the tip of a very large iceberg, as both ‘New’ Labour and Lib Dem parties have also received very substantial donations from such people.

Some have been honoured in return, others have enjoyed a very substantial ‘quid pro quo’ instead.

That anyone can play a part in the legislature of this country, or become a Minister of the Crown without first being elected to Public Office, is the antithesis of democracy.

Exploitation of the House of Lords by every main political party leader is a squalid disgrace, and it is high time that the institution was abolished and replaced with a wholly-elected second chamber of Parliament whose members are salaried like MPs.

D S Boyes, Rodley Lane, Bramley, Leeds