SIR – The Labour MP for Bradford South thinks that our “first-past-the-post” voting system has “served the country well over the years”(T&A, December 30).
He believes that changing the voting system “is about trying to get a coalition Government”. This absurd statement cannot detract from the truth that the aim is to get Government with the backing of most voters.
All political parties are coalitions of different views and opinions in any case.
It’s interesting that Gerry Sutcliffe thinks that all those years of unrepresentative Thatcherite Governments in the 1980s and 1990s “served the country well”!
As for recent Labour Governments drawn from a party with a landslide of seats on around 40 per cent of the vote....
The attitudes of people like Mr Sutcliffe remind me of opponents of women’s right to vote: “The current system has served us well! They shouldn’t have to worry their pretty little heads with such complicated matters as politics.”
Why should a minority of voters have the right to decide who governs us, Gerry?
Coun John Hall, (Lib-Dem, Windhill & Wrose) Pennithorne Avenue, Shipley
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