Sir.-With reference to the two letters in last Friday's Gazette regarding the leadership of Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council not being "democratic".

I have heard many people talking about this matter who are in agreement with these views - myself included.

Charles Kennedy MP appeared to evade the question of whether he would form a coalition with Labour should there have been a hung parliament at the last general election.

If the Lib-Dems do this at a local level, it seems inevitable that they would do it at central government level as well.

Anything for a bit of power!

-Simon Preedy, Cyprus Road, Hatch Warren, Basingstoke.

Sir.-It seems the Conservatives in Chineham are out to attack the entire British electoral system because it does not suit them and their expectations (Letters to the Editor, May 27).

In England you only "win" an election if you get more votes than any one other candidate in that constituency or ward.

As I understand it, the Conservative party won enough votes to "win" the election for 28 of their candidates in various wards, the Liberal Democrats 17, Labour 12, with Independents 3.

This makes 32 seats which are not Conservative.

The 32, if united, can outvote the 28 within the council the way that has always existed.

So we may have the same strange result as the Americans in 2000 when George W Bush won the presidency with fewer votes than his chief opponent. Was that democracy?

I have searched in vain for the Conservative protests in respect of 1979, 1983, 1987 and 1992, when Thatcher and Major never won a majority of the votes actually cast for all the candidates standing, but did win a majority of the seats decided. Was this also democracy?

Do the Conservatives only object or protest perhaps when they clearly lose?

Is there a solution?

In England we could perhaps change to some kind of proportional representation, where the results overall reflect the votes actually cast.

How the candidates will then vote for a leader or others, I am not sure.

But it is still possible that they will vote against the candidate they dislike the most, as seems to be the case in Basingstoke.

-Joe Robertson, Downsland Road, Basingstoke.