The Reader: Our current electoral system is not working

Ballot papers are counted at the 2019 General Election
PA
19 December 2019

The general election has proved one thing, the need for urgent change to our electoral system. The Lib Dems got 11.5 per cent of the vote, which translated to just 11 seats. By contrast, the SNP received 3.9 per cent of the popular vote, which handed them 48 seats.

The usual argument deployed against proportional representation is that it leads to political deadlock and chaos. However, given the state of Westminster from 2015 to 2019, nobody can seriously argue that our current electoral system makes for better government.

Sadly, both the Conservatives and Labour have a vested interest in keeping the system as it is, but change is required so that people can vote for the party they believe in, rather than holding their nose and voting for one they don’t.
Chris Key

Editor's reply

Dear Chris

Everyone has forgotten but we had a referendum on changing the voting system, in 2011. The idea was crushed. I don’t see another chance coming anytime soon.

I agree a system which left the Lib Dems with fewer seats for more votes and the Green Party with only one MP isn’t really representative. But proportional systems don’t make for better politics on their own. Northern Ireland uses PR for every election apart from the one to Westminster but its Assembly can’t even agree it should sit. Pushing for PR now will be hard and slow work.
Julian Glover, Associate Editor, Comment

Ballot papers in a count centre in Glasgow
AFP via Getty Images

Hard Brexit will be precarious for PM

Your apt Adams cartoon and Hugh Coleridge’s quote from Henry IV [The Reader, December 17] encourage me to quote Britain’s longest-serving Prime Minister, Sir Robert Walpole, who said in 1739: “Now they ring their bells, before long they will be wringing their hands.”

I note that Boris Johnson has decided to risk a hard Brexit by legislating to exclude any extension of EU trade negotiations beyond the end of 2020. The pound has lost its gains since his election victory as he has reintroduced uncertainty for business under the shadow of Brexit.

This is not the best way to ensure his term will outlast Margaret Thatcher or Tony Blair, let alone Sir Robert.
Nicolas Maclean

Only total change can save Labour

Jess Phillips is a likely candidate to take over the Labour party leadership
PA

Matthew d’Ancona is spot on about Jess Phillips [“Jess Phillips is Labour’s best asset, December 18 ]. Not a single one of the current Labour front bench deserves a place in the next shadow Cabinet, all being complicit in the party’s disaster. Imagine what Jess Phillips, Yvette Cooper, Harriet Harman, Stella Creasy and other Labour women could achieve on the front bench, and the message that would send to the country. Only wholesale change can save Labour from a hammering in 2024.
Barry Hyman

Migrants are not a threat to Britain​

Marking the UN’s International Migrants Day yesterday, we members of Migrant Voice find a lot to celebrate but also much to mourn.

Some of our cities are now Cities of Sanctuary, welcoming refugees from all over the world. Many of us have benefited from programmes to reskill and empower us as we build new lives in the UK.

But it was also a day when we remember those migrants who have lost their lives, in particular the 39 who died in a lorry in Essex in October. We are filled with sorrow as we remember them and others who, like them, set off on a journey with hopes and dreams but didn’t make it.

Anti-immigration policies have contributed to these deaths, and that means only different policies — ones that build bridges not walls — can save lives in the future. People are moving around this planet in increasing numbers and the sooner this is embraced and migrants are no longer presented as a threat, the better the future looks, for everyone.
Migrant Voice members: Sazini Malaba, Bilston, Wolverhampton; Cynthia Chan, Glasgow; Marzanna, Glasgow; Paige Ballmi, London; Zeenat Suleman, London; Judith, Glasgow; Paulina Tamborrel, London; Jacques Matensi-kubanza, Birmingham; Babs Macgregor, Glasgow; Alexander Chong, London; Marjorie Chong, London; Irene Danleu, Glasgow; Vishesh, Glasgow; Miroslav Cuba, Glasgow; Toby, London; John Wilkinson, Smethwick; Petya Georgieva, Glasgow; Viktoriya Litovchenko, Glasgow; Yemane Kassa, London; Kenneth Rodney, Dudley; Phyllis McGowan, Glasgow; Munir Ahmad, London; Nas Popalzai, Birmingham; Rasha Khalafalla, London; Suzanne Andrews, Glasgow; Marketa Buricova, Glasgow; Renate Wilkinson, Smethwick; Aderonke Apata, Manchester; Mulugeta Sheikh Shariful Amin, London; Sara Davidson, Didcot; Khabat Malarasheed, Glasgow; Jason Bergen, Manchester; Ranbir Bains, Smethwick; Leah Monteiro, Glasgow; Grace Franklin, Glasgow; Luc Seyoum, London; Mariko Hayashi, London; Kenneth Wilson, Glasgow; Farisai; Prof Nira Yuval-Davis, London; Anuradha Vittachi, Oxfordshire; Peter Armstrong, Oxfordshire; Nath, London; Bobbie Petford, Smethwick; Fatema Hickson, Birmingham; Dr David Brown, Solihull; Johann Taljaard, London; Simina Neagu, London; Dr Louise Sweet; Amina Elmaknassi; Rogelio Braga, London ; Jolly Nath, London; Alexandra Bulat, Cambridge; Elami Elyas, London; Teresa Norman, London; Jalana Lazar, London; Helia Lopez Zarzosa; Wafa Islam, London​