If Ken Faulkner (Letters, January 8) wishes to vote for an amazing dancing bear as head of state, that is his democratic right.

But were the British people allowed to exercise their right, they could find some better candidates for head of state.

Mr Faulkner insults the public by suggesting we are unable to devise a fair and democratic system for choosing our head of state and that out of 60 million people we cannot find a handful of good candidates.

With a preferential voting system we could elect worthy people to our highest office.

Such a system would mean we have more than one vote and it would be unlikely any partisan politician would win as no party has ever gained anything like a majority.

Even in the unlikely event that Margaret Thatcher were elected president, we would be assured Mark Thatcher would not succeed her four years later.

We would also be assured of a regular and democratic choice.

-Graham Smith, Brighton