Sunday 17 May 2015

A letter in the Western Morning News 14th May 2015

Travesty of Democracy

Dear Sir,
Imagine an election taking place in an African or Middle Eastern country the outcome of which resulted in one party being awarded 56 seats in its legislature after receiving 1.5 million votes while two other parties had 5 million votes between them but were apportioned only 2 seats. The British Government would be outraged at such blatant unfairness; it would, no doubt, support resolutions of condemnation at the UN, talk of possible sanctions would be in the air, threats of military intervention might be whispered.

In reality a similar travesty of democracy has just occurred in Britain where a party with 37 per cent of the vote has 100 per cent of the power. The SNP and its 1.5 million voters will not complain as they push on to independence. However, UKIP and the Green Party, with their 5 million votes but only 2 MPs, have every right to feel aggrieved.

In a multi-party democracy we need proportional representation; first past the post is now anti-democratic and must be replaced.

S.W.
English Democrats, Somerset

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