Closer polls a boost to tactical voting | Letters

The trend of vote swapping (www.swapmyvote.uk) shows that our first past the post electoral system is unfair, makes some votes worthless and others critical in marginal seats, doesn’t allow the minor parties to establish, and is in long overdue need of reform. Vote swapping is one way to make change happen. It is much more likely now with the polls showing a narrowing of the gap between the wedded to the current system Labour and the Tories. If Labour, the Lib Dems and the SNP gain more seats combined than the Tories, we could have a coalition government of all three, or a minority Tory or Labour administration. The first and second options are extremely unlikely, given differing views on Brexit and a second Scottish independence referendum. However, a minority Labour government with conditional support from the two minor parties could execute a programme for government. The people should demand that the foremost condition should be electoral reform enacted in time for the next general election.
Geoff Naylor
Winchester, Hampshire

• As a supporter of a progressive alliance, I was delighted that in my Twickenham constituency and in neighbouring Richmond Park, the Green party has stood aside to give the Liberal Democrats a better chance of winning. To try in a small way to get tactical voting into the minds of the sensible majority who are not obsessed by politics, in the days before the election, our window poster will proclaim Greens for Vince Cable, and I hope local Labour supporters will do the same. In a way it’s a pity we don’t have a Lynton Crosby, hectoring our side to repeat endlessly that the weak and wobbly Tories’ pro-austerity, coalition of cruelty must be constrained, and most importantly, keep it simple: Vote ABC – Anything But Conservative.
Colin Hines
East Twickenham, Middlesex