Although there have previously been remarkable Liberal and Lib Dem byelection victories that failed to lead to a longer-term challenge to the Conservatives, the Chesham and Amersham byelection might still herald a weakening of middle-class support for the Conservative party, and a crumbling of the “blue wall” (Senior Tories warn Boris Johnson ‘blue wall’ is at risk after byelection defeat, 19 June). Increasing sections of the middle class are suffering the downsides to free-market capitalism and corporate power, which the working class have always suffered: stagnant earnings or pay cuts, while their employers and shareholders get obscenely richer every year; loss of creativity or flexibility in the workplace due to micro- or macho-management and top-down performance targets; increasing job insecurity due to fixed-term contracts and repeated redundancies (the precariat); longer or more unsocial working hours, so less time with family, friends or engaging in community activities; constant attacks on “unaffordable” occupational pensions; up to £50,000 of debt for a university education, which until relatively recently was free; unaffordable housing or exorbitant rents for their young adult offspring; and the need to sell the family home to pay for nursing home fees in old age – so no inheritance for their children. The middle class previously looked to the Conservatives to provide continuity, integrity, morality, security and stability, yet today the Conservatives are a party of corruption, cronyism, divisiveness (the culture wars), philistinism, venality, and destabilising permanent revolution. As a result, the middle class feel increasingly alienated, betrayed, frightened, insecure and worried about their (and their children’s) future. They are increasingly suffering from the Conservatives’ free-market dogma and worship of profit at any cost. The once comfortable middle class are discovering that hard work is no longer a guarantee of becoming better off or enhancing their careers – they are being proletarianised. Pete Dorey Bath, Somerset • The government should not dismiss the Lib Dems’ stunning achievement as a local anomaly. Last week’s byelection victory looks like a continuation of something seen in the May local elections – voters choosing candidates most likely to beat a Conservative. In the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough mayoral election, the Labour win was due to Lib Dem alternative votes switching in the second count. Nearly 38,000 went to Labour while something over 14,000 went to the Conservative. In Suffolk, tactical voting was a factor in the Greens’ success, gaining six seats, at the county council election. The Conservatives remain firmly in control, but in many places anti-Conservative voters chose the candidate with the best chance of winning. In the Babergh district, for example, the Greens’ vote share rose by 14.4%, matched by the Lib Dems loss of 13.5% and Labour’s of 2.1%. In Chesham and Amersham, one factor in the Lib Dems’ success is Labour’s 7,000-plus supporters in 2019 switching to them this year. HS2 was obviously a significant and local issue, but the Lib Dems are also pointing to wider planning concerns. The government’s ideas to loosen planning controls are an issue across the region. The reasons why people vote for one candidate or another are always complex, but there are strong indications that anti-government votes are consolidating behind the candidate most likely to win. Andrew Grant-Adamson Debenham, Suffolk • Jonathan Freedland’s analysis of the current political position (Does this byelection point to a strategy that can defeat Johnson? Don’t count on it, 18 June) has its merits, but it omits a reference to local government and the damage inflicted on it in the 11 years of Tory government, including the five years in which the Lib Dems were in bed with them. Key services such as social care, education, housing and the environment have struggled to meet growing needs, and there is no sign of any attempt to make good the necessary funding, let alone to make provision for future needs. Jeremy Beecham Labour, House of Lords • In the 1960s I was an active Liberal parliamentary candidate and assisted in the only comparable byelection swing that returned Eric Lubbock as the MP for Orpington in 1962. It heralded the creation of the modern Liberal and subsequently Liberal Democrat party. It is clear that we are back in business. However, in many ways the lowest Labour vote in living memory is a wake-up call for Keir Starmer. The new Labour slogan is “Stronger Together”. Now is the time to put it into operation by putting electoral reform at the heart of Labour policy for the next election. Let us not enter into an endless debate about which system – the Scottish system will surely do. It would be a firm basis for pacts in the next general election. Stephen Jakobi Richmond, London • The most surprising aspect of the Chesham and Amersham byelection, apart from the result, was that it was happening at all. I saw no national media coverage of the campaign. It was almost as if there was a deliberate policy to keep it quiet. If this is the sort of result we get when the media stay away, perhaps that could happen more often. Derek Schofield Wistaston, Cheshire • Having worked as a town planner for more than 40 years, it is thrilling to see my profession in the middle of a debate about the future of the country. The background to the planning bill is a white paper written by a recruit to No 10 from Policy Exchange. And Policy Exchange fielded another of their analysts in the aftermath of the Chesham byelection to blame the voters for misunderstanding the forthcoming changes to the planning system. It would be truer to say that as the thinktank, Robert Jenrick, the prime minister and the white paper have all avoided the real problems with providing decent, energy-efficient and affordable homes, their “remedies” were never going to work in either the north or south of the country. The Lib Dems should follow their election win by explaining how they would deal with inflated prices of building land, construction carbon, cold and leaky homes and unsustainable levels of underoccupation. Daniel Scharf Abingdon, Oxfordshire • Your article (From Bermondsey to Bradford: the biggest byelection shocks, 18 June) arguably omits an even greater shock, that of the April 1945 by election of Wing Commander Ernest Millington in Chelmsford for Common Wealth, which led to the Labour party abandoning the major parties’ wartime electoral (against the wishes of its leaders and the then numerous Communist party) and fighting the 1945 general election immediately after the end of the war in Europe. And that on a rather more socialist platform than we have seen since. Surely the Guardian’s archives could have told you all this. A friend of mine here in Chelmsford remembers going to the polls on that byelection day, accompanying his voting mother! John Whitfield Chelmsford, Essex • Have an opinion on anything you’ve read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication.