VJ MONTAGUE, of Aune Cross, Bantham, writes: It is a sad fact that in any election a number of worthy, hard working representatives lose their seats through no fault of their own and in no way related to their performance. One such is Graham Watson, our MEP for many years. Those who know Graham recognised him as a hard-working, up-beat MEP who engaged positively with European politics. He worked tirelessly for the interests of our agriculture, tourism and fishing industries, and also to introduce reforms to the European Union. His fellow Liberal Democrat MEPs regarded him highly enough to appoint him as their leader for a number of years. In a survey by the Independent newspaper, Graham was rated as one of the five most hard-working MEPs representing the UK. All this has been lost in what could arguably be called a non-election. Two of the main parties, virtually failed to engage with any serious European issues, and a third fought on one issue which is not solely European. The press, by and large, besotted with the rise of UKIP, failed to inform or engender any real debate. The electorate, by and large, remains crassly ill-informed, a disgrace to a country which has been proud to call itself the cradle of parliamentary democracy. We have failed to deserve what we had got in the likes of Graham Watson. We will almost certainly get what we deserve in the future. l More letters, page 13.