28 MAY 2005, Page 21

Undemocratic reaction

From Tom Carter Sir: If you really think that first-past-thepost is as brilliant as all that (Leading article, 21 May), please consider what happened in Northern Ireland in the Westminster election of February 1974. Fifty-one per cent of the Northern Irish electorate voted against power-sharing and 11 anti-power-sharing Unionist MPs were returned. Forty-nine per cent voted in favour of power-sharing, and one propower-sharing MP was elected: Gerry Fitt. The Ulster Workers Council decided that this distorted result was a mandate for declaring a general strike with the aim of smashing power-sharing completely. They succeeded. The result was a further 20 years of Republican and Loyalist terrorism.

Tom Carter

Somerton, Somerset