Tim Bale concludes that the June 2017 election resulted in neither main party being able to form a government (“This election took us back to the future”, Comment).

This is only a startling confirmation of how direly the British electoral system needs renewal. Every time such a notion is mentioned, almost everyone, in and out of politics, lines up to denounce the very impertinence. Westminster, with its antique, first-past-the-post electoral system, is hailed as the Rolls-Royce of democracies, the envy of the world. What tosh! This is the system that is steadily producing an increasingly divided and dysfunctional society. One that works for fewer and fewer of us.

The broad lesson from our continental neighbours, nearly all of whom have some form of proportional representation, is that healthier political systems produce fairer and less divided societies. If the debacle of the general election result teaches us anything, it is that the time to reform our voting system is long overdue. Far from everything looking bleak, we live in an era of unprecedented real wealth and capability. Only astute and fair political reform can unlock the promise of the future.

Paul Cairns

Halifax

It would be interesting to conduct some research on the number of Lib Dem and Green supporters who tactically voted to strengthen the Labour cause and rid us of the Tory scourge. In all the adulation being heaped on the Labour party and all the limelight that Labour is basking in, some gratitude should be shown to the many of us who had to betray our principles and beliefs to assist Labour. Of course, this would have been unnecessary with a proportional representation system, the case for which grows increasingly stronger as we see the trend to marginal or hung governments.

Michael F Jones

Holmfirth, West Yorkshire

Andrew Rawnsley claims that no one won the election(“There’s a member of the living dead walking Downing Street”, Comment). But the winners were the public, in that it produced a result that represented public opinion collectively, in a way that voters couldn’t vote for individually.

The hung parliament has acted as a check on a prime minister who confuses the interests of the country with her personal fortune, leading a party now unable to deliver the contentious parts of the manifesto and has not been given a blank cheque for a dog’s Brexit without putting Jeremy Corbyn, whom a lot of people have reservations about, in 10 Downing Street. Hunting is unlikely to be legalised, grammar schools are unlikely to be foisted on us, school lunches are safe, austerity may be coming to an end and the contentious boundary changes may be shelved.

Andrew Hudson

Ulverston, Cumbria

The electorate was subjected to an almost North Korean style of election, where those meretricious and ghastly slogans were supposed to infiltrate our “lazy” brains and make us march ceremoniously into the polling station and vote for the leader.

This was Tory hubris at its very worst and, naturally, the general public said no. Andrew Rawnsley is correct in saying that you do not take the electorate for granted and, if you do, expect dire consequences. The Conservatives may have won the war, but Labour, by sheer expertise and passion, won the more significant battle that hopefully now will see our beleaguered and unequal country on a different and much needed course in the not too distant future.

Judith A Daniels

Great Yarmouth, Norfolk