kluionty governments
rorn Miss E. Lakeman
Sir. You draw attention to the contrast between our present government's difficulties and a number of other countries which take the minority government situation in their stride. Why the difference? All those other countries have electoral systems which make it much easier to work with a parliament in which no one party has a clear majority. In all of them, the seats won by each Party are proportional to that party's support among the voters; there is no possibility that a small turnover of votes may Produce a very different result, so the parties have no temptation to force a new election. They may not like the voters' verdict, but they have to make the best of it. In Ireland, there is the additional advantage that the single transferable vote system enables the voters to show Which major policies are supported by the majority of them, and what coalition, if any, the voters favour. In their 1973 election, the majority voted 1, 2, 3 • • • for Fine Gael candidates and then for Labour ones, or vice versa, making it quite clear that the coalition of those two parties is what the majority want.
Our illiterate's X system gives the voters no such power, and it puts great Obstacles in the way of any honourable co-operation between people of different parties. It forces us to vote as if candidate X were perfect and all others beyond the pale, making parties appear to be totally opposed when in fact they are not, and coalition involves the great evil of pacts in the constituencies. Get nd of this system and we shall be able to manage the 'hung parliament' situation as well as any other country.
Enid Lakeman
6 Chancel Street, Southwark, London SEI
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