Sir – Goodness me! How the Labour Party has changed. As Drew Carter once voted Green (Letters, February 5), so I voted Labour, and more than once. That was when the Labour Party stood for something worthwhile.

In common with many who are now Greens, I was appalled by the Iraq war, by Tony Blair, and perhaps most of all by Labour’s shameless jostling with the Conservatives and the Lib Dems for the middle ground in British politics.

Despite the political posturing, all that really matters is calculating what most people will want to hear, which may be why most people are fed up with main party politics.

But Drew Carter goes further in staking the Labour Party’s place in the political establishment: as the Greens scored only four per cent of the Witney vote in the last General Election, the Greens should show more respect.

Well, no. The Green Party is radical, concerned as much with inequality and the cruelty of austerity as with the environment.

We have no right to any support we have not won by reason and passion. We intend fighting a hard General Election in Witney and being nice to the Labour Party – or any other party – is not a priority.

I do sympathise with Bob Forster (Letters, February 5), who wonders about the point of voting in Witney when the Tories are sure to triumph yet again. Chin up, Mr Forster; with all its faults, first past the post voting still allows us to show our aspirations for something better. In Witney, it is the Tory vote that is wasted: a few sheep more or less make no difference.

Stuart Macdonald, Green Party parliamentary candidate for Witney