Letter: PR: some pointers for the puzzled

Sir: 44.4 per cent of voters may, as John Diamond tells us, have got the government they voted for - but that doesn't mean they got the government they wanted. More voters than ever were driven by frustration to vote tactically for the least unacceptable candidate with a chance of winning.

Under the current system any claim of a mandate is unfounded, not only because the winning party doesn't have a majority of votes cast but also because there is no way of knowing how many of those it did get were tactical or negative. Under a PR system it will be possible to know for the first time what the British people really want.

BRIAN FEWSTER

Leicester