YET again we have the lack of democracy with Poole and Bournemouth councils wanting to join together while Christchurch, East Dorset and Purbeck councils rejected the proposal earlier this year and it is most likely the referendum will be ignored as was the 75,000 signatures and the consultations that made it clear they didn’t want Poole A & E to close.

Where was our MP and where is he now - Robert Syms is the most inactive Member of Parliament since he took on the job in 1997.

I give him one point out of a hundred for effort.

I have never seen him on PMQs to be able to ask questions, on the other hand we have to go back to the 60s, 70s and 80s to find the most high calibre and active MP in this area, a gentleman called Oscar Murton.

He must have helped hundreds of people in Hamworthy, Poole and the surrounding district.

I met him several times over the years and corresponded with him for many years. Problems large or small he would stick his neck out to help solve it for his constituents.

If the Conservatives want to reclaim some credibility for the interest of the people of Poole they had better look for an MP with the same qualities as former MP Oscar Murton, who died in 2009 aged 95.

The Knighthood for MP Robert Syms has devalued the award for those that truly deserve it.

As we so often hear it is not what you know, but whom you know.

Mike Huntley, Reuben Drive, Hamworthy