Throughout the town last week’s election was a total disaster for the Liberal Democrats.

Their party has gone from 33 councillors in 2003, and control of the council, to seven in 2007 and now three councillors.

The referendum on AV became a referendum on Nick Clegg. It may be decades before we get a fairer voting system in this country.

I am convinced that the Conservatives locally and the Conservative/Liberal Democrat government nationally have been hiding the true scale of their economic and social policies until after this election.

Seven out of 10 people in Bournemouth did not vote. This could be because they are broadly happy with the Conservatives running the town, because none of the candidates made a good case or just that they couldn’t be bothered to vote.

The danger of not voting is that if people and parties think they stand no chance whatsoever of getting elected so they will not bother putting themselves forward.

If they decide that the only people likely to vote in Bournemouth are Conservative then they will only concern themselves with these potential voters.

BILL BRANDWOOD, Liberal Party, Markham Road, Bournemouth