Letter: The people decide how to elect MPs

Sir: John Diamond (letter, 7 May) says that 44.4 per cent of the voters have the government they voted for, but it would be interesting to know how many of these voters had read the Labour Party manifesto. How many were in fact tactical voters who chose Labour as the best means of unseating a Conservative? Exactly how many people have got the kind of government they would really like?

Calculation of how many seats Labour and the rest would have obtained under PR ignores the fact that the parties as we know them would not have existed under PR. Both Labour and the Conservatives would have long ago split and we would by now have four or five largish parties and a few fringe ones.

We have to accept that very few voters will get exactly what they want from any political party. It is more important to have a government whose policies can be supported, in general, by a majority of voters.

G F STEELE

Ipswich