It is not very clear how much satisfaction Liberals feel
they got from their discussions with Mr. Churchill on electoral reform on Tuesday. It is fairly safe to predict that they will not get much electoral reform. The case for it, of course, is logical. The contrast between the number of Liberal votes cast in the country and the number of Liberal seats in the House of Commons is glaring. But this country has never prided itself on living by logic. And the fact is that the present system works well enough, and it is pretty certain that under P.R. or the single transferable vote or something similar it would work badly. We need stable Governments, and a Government can be stable with a safe majority of no more than eighteen or so. A system which produced a House of Commons in which no party possessed a clear majority, and bargaining and manoeuvres and temporary coalescences became necessary, would be thoroughly harmful. For that reason it is pretty certain that neither Conservatives nor Labour would favour the introduction of P.R.; Mr. Morrison has just declared against it. It is hard on the Liberals, but there it is.
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