SI1, — As a recent reader of your (in many ways) most
admirable paper, I am astonished by your leading article this week. You say (how rightly!) that' `the electorate is sick of the way the present party system works . . .,' but you then add : 'It is not easy to suggest a sensible our practicable solution.' You are mistaken. Let our representatives at West- minster suspend their 'shadow-boxing' antics, their interminable discussions of their privileges, and de- vote a few minutes of their precious time to passing an Act instituting the single transferable vote, which was once half-promised us (I seem to recollect) by no less a man than Sir Winston Churchill him- self. And let us have no nonsense about splinter parties.
The polling booth is the only place where the ordinary, run-of-the-mine citizen has an opportunity of effectively expressing his opinion and is not likely to be deterred from so doing by stupid abuse from some bell-ringing booby on the Right or by shouts. of 'vermin' from a loud-mouthed demagogue on the Left, as anxious as a radio comedian to keep his name before the public.—Yours faithfully,
J. M. JACOBS
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