Letter to the editor: I must congratulate Mary Holland on her star letter defending the voting rights of older people. It was one of the most sensible I have ever read.

What she condemns is age apartheid.

The very notion of losing the vote when one becomes older ought to alarm younger people as well.

They will also get old and going through life knowing that one day they will be ruled only by another section of the community should be unsettling. If democracy is to be improved then the one vote, one person system could be reconsidered.

It is unfair and also ineffective if the vote of a knowledgeable person who has a sound understanding of politics, society and the economy is nullified by someone else who votes for another candidate merely because that person has a broader smile.

Everyone should be given one vote (except those in prison), but the results might be more impressive if all were allowed to gain an extra vote by passing a public examination (at their own expense) to substantiate political awareness.

We could also recognise the virtues of those who live an unselfish lifestyle.

People who undertake unpaid caring or charitable works could be registered under a points system until eventually being awarded an extra vote.

That would mean those who care have a louder political voice than those whose vote is cast for purely selfish motives. In turn, candidates would then have to appeal to others by presenting the right aims and not just resorting to the gimmicks of popularism.

DON KENEFICK, New Eltham