AS LONG as I can remember, we lived on a see-saw of booms and busts.

It started with the rich owning and controlling everything and gradually being forced to relinquish, bit by bit, as little as they could to the poor, who owned and controlled nothing. The Tory and Labour parties ruled, first one then the other.

Most people have no interest in the two-party system; extreme riches versus extreme poverty with the gap between growing ever greater. They are too busy with work, family and getting on with life to be involved.

They know what is wrong but lose interest because they don’t feel part of it. However, many felt a better way forward was on offer with proportional representation backed by Nick Clegg and the Lib Dems.

No party got enough votes to form a government and if the Lib Dems had been true to their promise, they would have tried to gather support among all the smaller parties before talking to Labour and Tories.

They didn’t and we have a Tory government supported by Clegg and his party, intent on turning our life support, the NHS and what’s left of public services, into sources of profit for the their traditional backers.

George Appleby, Clifton, York.