SIR – I feel flattered to have drawn responses from Philip Bird of UKIP and John Cole of the Lib Dems on the Letters page with my thoughts about the Alternative Vote.

I agree with UKIP that AV is a trivial issue compared with having a referendum on our EU membership. Each day brings a new reason for getting out of that corrupt, undemocratic institution.

But Philip Bird’s thoughts about compulsory voting are childish – he would take his bat home, he suggests, rather than vote if it were compulsory.

Meanwhile, John Cole is not concerned that second, third, even tenth choices, if they are to count at all, count the same as first choices, which is stupid.

Further, the effect of some people not filling in lower order choices, when others do, is an imponderable. In tightly-contested situations, the complex system becomes a lottery.

Let’s be clear about what I was arguing: 1) It is not right that second or third choices, where they count at all, should carry the same weight as first choices.

2) If we are to have change, compulsory voting, with its higher turnout, would give more democratic legitimacy than AV would.

Nicholas Bielby, Frizinghall Road, Bradford