Poor turnout in North Yorkshire Mayoral election raises questions over health of our democracy - Yorkshire Post Letters

Roger Backhouse’s letter (The YP 9.5.24) notes how remarkable Labour’s win in the York and North Yorkshire Mayoral election was, given their lack of campaigning. I agree, it was noteworthy, but from an entirely different standpoint.

The winning candidate gained the support of just over 10 per cent of the total electorate, so by extension nearly 90 per cent of the electorate didn’t vote for the winning candidate. In fact, over 70 per cent didn’t even vote at all.

You can pontificate as to the reasons why around 450,000 people chose not to exercise their democratic right, but this surely must ring alarm bells as to the general health of how democracy is faring in 21st century Britain.

I have absolutely no expectation that any politician of whatever hue will want to poke around with the status quo and undermine their own livelihood. So, what’s to be done?

I am fascinated by the short period in our history when the first King Charles had been dispatched and the ordinary folk of the land seized the opportunity to define what a fair and good society would look like. Debates and pamphlets abounded, until Cromwell’s iron fist re-established control and the hard-fought slog for the freedoms we enjoy today carried on behind closed doors.

Maybe now, in the reign of a more enlightened King Charles, we need to reassess what good looks like in terms of our democracy. So, budding pamphleteers – ideas please.