WE used to dream of a hung Parliament to put a new party with fresh ideas centre-stage and “break the mould” of our politics.

Today, the party which sees itself in that role is one that has been around too long for any good it has done and whose “fresh” ideas are to stay in an organisation we’ve belonged to for nearly half a century (and are rightly dissatisfied with) and to keep net immigration running in the hundreds of thousands a year.

Where is the virtue in giving a dominant role to a party which comes third?

A coalition may have a combined total of seats and of votes which is more than 50 per cent of the total. But these votes will have been cast on the basis of their separate manifestos.

The democratic deficit is that no one will have seen or voted for their combined manifesto. Coalitions (with the exception of the National Government of the 1930s) put the cart before the horse, having an election first and then horse-trading and cobbling together their policies.

Can we imagine a combined Labour, SNP and Lib-Dem manifesto? Labour can’t come up with a united manifesto even for themselves, instead sending out Remain or Leave speakers depending on the sentiments of the constituency they are to address.

John Riseley, Harrogate.