Letter: Some advice on tactics

Sir: Tactical voting is back on the agenda for many, like me, for whom the big priority on 1 May is a change of government and also a significant increase in Lib Dem MPs.

I am a Liberal Democrat supporter, especially because of their attitude to the environment and education funding, but at the last general election, here in Rugby, Labour came second. A swing in line with the opinion polls could oust our Tory MP, so long as the two main opposition parties do not carve up the remaining votes too equally between them. So I will vote Labour on 1 May, while informally "paired" with Labour friends in Oxford West, who will vote Liberal Democrat as the best chance of unseating John Patten. I will vote Lib Dem in the local election.

This kind of tactical voting is both a principled and serious response to the desperate need to have a government committed to the whole community and not just the haves and have mores. It is made easier because for many of us the differences between Labour and the Liberal Democrats pale into insignificance when contrasted with either of their differences with the Conservatives.

DAVID CHARLES-EDWARDS

Rugby, Warwickshire