Readers respond to an article in which Zadie Smith writes that real change is on the horizon after the Tories ruined Britain

Re Zadie Smith’s article (‘Here comes the sun’: Zadie Smith on hope, trepidation and rebirth after 14 years of the Tories, 3 July), I’m hoping against hope (we’ve been here before) that on Friday, the miasma of greed, self-centredness and downright stupidity will have evaporated and we will have a government whose fundamental purpose is to support, serve and improve the whole of the UK and not just to rip the lead off the roof and steal the last lightbulbs. A government that genuinely means to roll up its sleeves and sort out the mess.

I’m from the generation of free orange juice and cod-liver oil, smaller-scale secondary schools that weren’t businesses but educational establishments, and hospitals where you saw physiotherapists as soon as – and for as long as – you needed, where patients lay in wards, not corridors.

I used to shock US audiences with my stories of Britain’s excellent, accessible universities and healthcare. Then the Conservatives ruined the country. Now real change is on the horizon

Twenty-four years ago, when I was 24, I did my first reading in an American bookshop. At the end, in the question-and-answer bit, a middle-aged lady with a disgruntled look on her face put her hand up: “Yeah, I don’t get it.”

I asked her what she didn’t get.