Well Malcolm, my last post may have been a bit misleading and you are correct that Joe public do not have a vote when it comes to electing a party leader, but I still stand by what I said. Party leaders are thrown at us (Joe Public) constantly by TV and news papers, the only time I hear about my local MP is in the local paper and there's not much of that, its usually the party leader that gets thrown at you. This is not meant to be offensive but if you ask people in your local area who there local MP is some would not know but they would know the party leaders. People vote for the party leader in a general election, gone are the days when we voted for the local MP like in the days of Edward James "Eddie" Milne the MP for Blyth, in those days I was not fully aware of who the party leader was simply because I was not been constantly thrown at me. I agree with your point about none elected people been put in a position of rule never having had a vote cast for them and yes it does show a total lack of respect by their leadership who are really saying that legally elected MP's are not capable of government positions