Pegs, percentages and politics (series title)

If Labour supporters vote tactically in an attempt to stop a Tory victory, they will be too clever by half; and if Compass thinks it is possible to manipulate politics in this way, then it needs to get real (Report, 24 April). New Labour's priority is simple.

We need the legitimacy of a respectable share of the national vote if we are to form or be part of a new government. We should not waste our votes on another party in the vain hope that we can second-guess the electorate.

What's more, surely we want New Labour's centrist values to win through. Not the opportunism of the last-ditch left

Mike Allott

Eastleigh, Hampshire