Coalition decision must reflect votes cast

It is extraordinary that anyone should suggest that the Liberal Democrats or the SNP are duty-bound to defy the British electorate and make a "progressive alliance" with a defeated, discredited Labour Party (your report, 10 May).

Is this not the party that brought back tuition fees and torture? That lied to parliament and people over Iraq? That bowed to American warmongers and humiliated the United Nations? That privatised air traffic control? That deregulated financial institutions and nearly brought economic ruin? That welcomed in the billionaires and widened social inequality? That damaged freedom of speech, association and religion?

If that is progress, you can keep it.

DR ALISTAIR DUFF

Glen Douglas Drive

Cumbernauld

If Nick Clegg enters into a coalition with David Cameron he will put the final nail in the coffin of a Liberal Democrat Party.

The Tories do not, as is widely claimed, have a mandate from the electorate, and with almost no areas of common ground with Lib Dem policy.

If Clegg and his colleagues climb into the Conservative bed, they will very soon find themselves out in the cold.

The Lib Dem manifesto opposed Conservative policies on taxation, defence, immigration, Europe, cost cutting and electoral reform, to name just a few.

Electoral Reform has been the holy grail for the Lib Dems but with the level of opposition to it from the Conservative Party, any promise of an early review will prove as empty as Labour's undertaking on a referendum on Europe.

Unpalatable as it may seem, the Liberal Democrats have more in common with Labour than with the Tories, as have the SNP and Plaid Cymru.

DEREK BROCK

Corstorphine Road

Edinburgh

There is something clearly wrong if the Conservative Party, who were the clear winners of the general election, should now be obliged to engage the support of the Liberal Democrats, who came nowhere, to ensure that they can have a continuity of government.

Our parliamentary system has always worked best when two main parties are in and one wins with a substantial majority.

The Liberal Democrats have never been more than a party that collects protest votes, and to now see them in a position where they can affect the governance of Britain at a time of chronic economic difficulty is just l udicrous.

MALCOLM PARKIN

Gamekeepers Road

Kinnesswood

Portraying themselves as the party of principle, the Lib Dems don't seem overly respectful of those obtaining most votes being entitled to rule. They appear happy enough to be the party deciding who is to rule despite them coming third numerically in the polls.

The rumour mill says cabinet seats in the new government could be occupied by some Lib Dems. Last Thursday's voting hardly merits them these. To maintain any stance on a moral high ground they should have stayed out of any government-making manipulations altogether.

They were not voted into office, and there was nothing on the ballot paper about voting for runners-up having the right to decide who occupies high office.

Unless this is what they mean by electoral reform.

IAN JOHNSTONE

Forman Drive

Peterhead