ELECTIONS are not a good measure of democracy: if I knew how to vote on Thursday, November 15, I would have spoiled my ballot.

As an eco-socialist, I sometimes feel I have little in common with people from Communist traditions like Tim Siret. However, we always seem to be ridiculed for (re)stating obvious truths.

Mr Cummings once said something sensible about our National Health Service and I would say to Mr Leavis (Viewpoints, November 16) that the people of Hartlepool once elected a ‘monkey-hanger’.

On Thursday, Oxford Socialist Resistance held a public meeting in the Town Hall with Hong-Kong-based activist Au Luong-Yu. His new book China’s Rise: Strength and Fragility is available from Socialist Resistance and/or Merlin Press.

The level of ‘corruption’ in China is similar to here. The level of media ‘censorship’ may be worse than here but it’s near non-existent in Venezuela.

I would not say the so-called United Kingdom (or Bolivia) are democracies and China (or Syria) aren’t, but I would say that democracy functions better in Bolivia, Cuba and Venezuela.

Democracy means different things to different people but we’d all be better off if we were more like Bolivia in particular.

ANDY GIBBONS Weyland Road Oxford