I agree with Chris Maden (South China Morning Post, March 8) that 'the American and British public can remove Bush and Blair' at the next election. That is the principle of democracy.

My argument is that the principle is dead, and only the empty vote remains. In the US, a presidential candidate can make any promises he thinks will catch votes, but once in power he has to serve corporate America because his road shows depend upon their donations. Britain is moving in the same direction.

Moreover, neither country can elect a truly representative government because they adopt the first-past-the-post system, instead of the fairer proportional representation system. Consequently the ruling party usually represents only a minority of the population. In the case of Mr Bush, he did not even win the 2000 election.