William Hague should remember Tory vulnerabilities with voters at this election – Yorkshire Post Letters

WILLIAM Hague rightly points out that if the Lib Dems were to hold the balance in a hung Parliament then they can be expected to let Labour rule.

It is also true that they seek to ignore the result of the 2016 referendum. But I think it is a mistake for him to muddy this issue by suggesting that for them to resurrect the question of electoral reform would show similar disrespect for the 2011 referendum which rejected AV.

How Yorkshire bluntness over Don Valley floods sunk Boris Johnson’s claim to be a ‘man of the people’ – Tom Richmond

The point is that a referendum decision should be implemented, not that the policy can never thereafter be changed. We are still waiting for this with Brexit whereas, in accordance with the 2011 result, we will shortly have held three more general elections under the old system.

Similarly, since the 1975 referendum on EC membership, we stayed a further 41 years in that organisation and its successor before again putting the matter to a vote.

If you want Brexit, then vote Tory tactically – Yorkshire Post Letters

I think this distinction should matter to Lord Hague because events have shown that the Conservative Party is as vulnerable as any other to vote splitting. Ukip was for long a source of anxiety to Conservative leaders on this account. Now it is only the magnanimity of Nigel Farage that has saved Brexit, the country and the Conservatives from such splitting with the Brexit Party.

The Conservatives’ bacon may be saved this time, but how can the party of individual choice be content with a system which relies upon restricting the range of choice open to voters?

From: Edward Grainger, Nunthorpe, Middlesbrough.

DURING the course of the campaign, I am sure that your editorial team will give good coverage to those marginal seats in Yorkshire that will be keenly fought. Could I urge that your team involve the marginal seat currently held by the Conservatives of Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland, with a slender majority of 1,200 votes?

Together with Middlesbrough which is held by Labour, these most northerly constituencies, but south of the River Tees, hardly get a mention in the wider media. Yet both are all part of the Broad Acres that make up our wonderful county and should not be forgotten for that reason.

From: Jarvis Browning, Fadmoor, York.

I THINK it’s a bad mistake by the Brexit Party to leave safe Tory seats – who would we vote for next? Especially when the Conservatives might renew fracking and go ahead with a deal with the EU.