ONE of the most extraordinary general elections in history has now come and gone. All the pundits were wrong. No more coalitions. We have a stable one party government with a majority of 12. God's in his heaven, all's well with the world. Or is it?

Somehow, possibly deliberately, the really big issues which are going to affect all of us in the next five years were scrupulously avoided by the politicians.

Global warming that is already happening and can only get worse, and is certain to have profound effects in all sorts of ways was not worth a mention, was it?

For the last 50km driving into Calais lorry drivers are told not to stop because of all the people living in the shanty towns that have been created in the fields will be trying to leap onto their vehicles to somehow get across to Dover.

Germany has already this year received 400,000 asylum seekers. Millions of desperate people are being crammed into unseaworthy boats to set foot on the land of countries that don't want them and don't know what to do with them.

Because of our taking sides in the Ukraine, the Russians are practically on a daily basis sending war planes over into our airspace and Russian nuclear submarines erect their periscopes close to the west coast of Scotland.

In Gordon Brown's old constituency we're building two vast aircraft carriers but have no compatible aircraft or enough sailors to man them and have no idea how to use them. The surveys by a UNESCO commission in a score of advanced western countries places Britain to within two or three places of the bottom of the list in terms of educational attainment.

They have also found a similar position in the happiness of our teenagers and it has been reported that one in 14 annually are presenting with self-harm injuries.

But the biggest issue is the economy in which we are assured that much success has been achieved and will continue to be achieved provided we maintain this policy of austerity.

None of the countries that have tried this solution have had any success, but it is not all failure.

In The Sunday Times Rich List the rich are now twice as rich as they were in 2009.

The wealthiest 1000 people in Britain are worth £570 billion, an increase of 112 per cent since 2000. The greatest rise has been in the last 12 months. The biggest rate of increase in the last 18 years.

There are now just under 1000 food banks which are used by a million people who cannot afford to put sufficient food on the table.

I have an old-fashioned belief in democracy. I want an elected president with executive powers, the scrapping of the House of Lords and its replacement with a Senate in which members are elected from every county and big city, a House of Representatives selected through proportional representation from the contesting parties and referendums provided when enough people request them.

As for the Scots: give them full independence, require them to raise their own taxes to pay for whatever they choose without being subsidised by the rest of us.

I wonder if there is anyone else who agrees with me?

I once accepted an invitation from the MP from the Forest and together with another teacher took a party of youngsters by coach down to visit the mother of democracy, so-called. We entered by the House of Lords and the guide pointed out to the youngsters the seat where the Queen would sit.

To his horror the whole group charged forward to sit on her throne. It took naval discipline to prevent this.

And while they were being told off I staggered into the next chamber where there were a lot of long, green seats and sat down in the middle of one to recover my equilibrium.

A minute later I was being shouted at by a large police sargeant and found that I was sitting in the place reserved for the Leader of the Opposition.

The memory helps me to feel some sympathy with Eddy, a decent chap who has had to suffer years of being shouted at also.

His efforts to create a better society has also led to abuse and humiliation so that I am feeling even more sorry for all but the very rich during the next five years.

– Roger Horsfield, Bream.