Letters: why I’m voting Reform

Back to 1976?

Sir: Your leading article perfectly reflects the public’s attitude to the manifestos of the major parties (‘Challenging democracy’, 29 June). No one has a plan that can remotely be seen as likely to work. Each party promises goodies they have no idea how to pay for; the only question is who will bankrupt us first. As ever, it is easy to distribute largesse, but no one has a clue how to remove it. We are heading towards a rerun of 1976 when the Labour government had to go cap in hand to the IMF. Those old enough can remember inflation of 25 per cent and a Bank base rate of 17 per cent. If you think rates now are excessive, just wait.

George Kelly

Buckingham

Small parties

Sir: Everyone seems to agree that our first-past-the-post voting system is ‘unfair’ (‘Downfall’, 29 June), but what is the answer? All systems of proportional representation are designed by politicians to gerrymander elections in their favour, and this usually backfires.