Florence Ingram (Letters, 21 September) is quite wrong to blame proportional representation for the rise of Hitler. The unfairness of the treaty of Versailles and what it inflicted on the German population created a backlash of resentment in which extremism was able to breed and the German president made a terrible mistake in making Hitler chancellor. After the war, the allies were right to insist that the new West Germany was governed with elections conducted by PR and in a federal structure. This curbed the potential of extremes taking power, forced sensible politicians to work together and provided the stability that allowed Germany to grow so successfully. The mistake that we made was not to give ourselves the benefit of such a system when we gave it to the Germans.
Lord Rennard
Liberal Democrat, House of Lords
• Florence Ingram ignores some core issues. We currently enjoy stable government delivered by approximately 28% of the electorate, but continually exploiting the mask of a majority democratic mandate.
All governments make deals behind the closed doors of the cabinet or inner cabinet, perhaps swayed by the influence of a small number of press barons or the excessively wealthy. Is that democratic? It would surely be better to utilise a fair system that works towards representative consensus. Or do we just accept that might is right?
Graham Marsden
Sheffield
• The Weimar Republic had many problems, not least an immature democracy, economic woes and national bitterness about its treatment after 1918. To blame PR for the takeover of government by the Nazi party is simplistic. Many countries have a form of PR – among them Germany and Italy – and stable government. The problem in Britain is not inter-party strife but arguments within parties that are unable to reflect the plurality of views held by the population.
Moira Sykes
Manchester
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