William Dixon Smith (Letters, July 9) has a tenuous grasp of Parliamentary history if he genuinely believes the House of Commons was filled with selfless individuals before the advent of political parties.

In fact, up until the mid-19th century, our parliamentary benches, with a handful of exceptions, were rife with placemen, timeservers and the witless pawns of various royal or anti-royal factions.

Large numbers of seats changed hands due to bribery or blackmail, rather than at the behest of the electorate, and a few rich families controlled dozens of constituencies. Indeed, it was only the creation of mass political organisations, with party discipline, structure and the need to appeal to a large number of voters, which reduced the opportunities for corruption.

Political parties may not be perfect, but they are a lot better than the alternatives.

Patrick Kelly, East Mount Road, York.