Britain’s frustrating politics

Bagehot (September 16th) blamed the clash of Rory Stewart’s idealism with the political reality of Westminster for his going “a bit mad”. But isn’t the endorsement of the “grubby but always needed art of politics” even crazier? The corrupt, factional skulduggery now embedded in many representative governments should not be the best that Britain can hope for, especially now that we so clearly see that it produces an apathetic, alienated population, divisive all-or-nothing referendums and a long decline of national competitiveness.

Those seeking power must spell out new ideas, even if at first they sound naive, otherwise newcomers like Mr Stewart will have no legitimacy to reform how any country is run. Change in Britain might include proportional representation, randomly selected citizens’ assemblies, doing something new with the House of Lords, a mix of all these and more. True insanity is to keep banging our heads against the wall of the same outdated voting system and to expect that it will produce a better result.

HUGH POPE

Brussels

Like that Japanese soldier who hid in the jungle until 1974 Britain’s parties are survivors of dead conflicts. The MPs they pick and control for our approval are tied to manifestos with minority support. Our simplified elections are cockfights between the two main parties, one of which expects to win. Unlike Europe’s other voters, ours despise coalitions and proportional representation as formulas for sissies. As a result we have alternating rule by one party that the majority of voters have usually rejected, which is on the hook to its remnant membership.

ROD TIPPLE

Cambridge