THE SWEDISH EXAMPLE
SIR,—You have done a service in pointing out how the example of Sweden in 1940 shows a way by which a National Government may continue in being both during and after a contested general election and yet leave the various parties free to nominate their own candidates in the con- stituencies. In this instance the party to which the Prime Minister belonged increased its representation, obtaining a majority in both Houses of Parliament ; yet in spite of this the National Government was not displaced to make way for a government of one party. It was rightly held that the seriousness of the times and of the issues at stake called for the largest possible measure of national co-operation. .The result was to no small extent due to the fact that the Swedish electoral system was based on proportional representation. An electoral system which secures a just representation in the legislature to all parties removes a cause of
bitterness which may make a National Government difficult, or even impossible, when it is most needed.
In view of the magnitude of the issues with which our own Parliament will be faced at the close of the war, ought we not carefully to explore without delay the possibility of such a modification of our own electoral system as will ensure that Parliament shall be fully representative of the nation as a whole and that the result of a general election shall not be distorted by any form of electoral gamble? There is at present on the Order Paper of the House of Commons a notice of motion signed by 104 members, drawn from all parties in the House, in favour of the setting up of a representative conference to consider the question of electoral reform, to report at the earliest possible date. While a number of the signatories are not themselves in favour of proportional representation, they agree in thinking that the consideration of electoral reform in its widest aspects is a matter of urgency. We ought to do what we can now to see that the next Parliament is in every way one worthy of its great
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