Letter: Play your part

Stewart Hogg's "big society" suggestions (Letters, 10 January) are the stuff of second-tier Edinburgh Festival comedy, not serious debate. Tell your boss you can't go to work because the rail fares have gone up? Expect your P45 in the post before the week's up.

Stop paying council tax because you're annoyed at some of the things the council spends money on? Soon, it'll be unable to do all the things you aren't annoyed about.

Don't vote because you're unhappy about those who get in? Ever tried voting for someone else, instead of who "my father and his father before him" voted for?

Scotland is the worst nation in western Europe for Neanderthals dragging their knuckles to the polling booths to support "their" party (usually Labour) like it's a football team.

In the 1990s, fed-up Devonians voted in a string of Raving Loonies to oust Tories who thought the council a cushy number with perks for life; it concentrated city hall's minds wonderfully.

"Big society" means taking part, not sitting with a petted lip and saying, "I'm not playing".

Mark Boyle

Linn Park Gardens

Johnstone, Renfrewshire