I READ with interest Steven Thompson’s article on election night. (Saturday, May 9)
The reference to all sorts of anomalies where, say, two councillors were up for election in a ward, and an elector voted for two parties does not surprise me. Town Council elections sometimes go one better, and, where there were three vacancies in a ward, you would occasionally see that an elector had voted for three different parties!
I agree that “everyone gets a vote no matter how bizarre it might be”. As for the General Election I guess that the successful candidates should be congratulated, as they won under the current rules. It is intuitively obvious that the current electoral system is better than that used in the days of the “potwallopers”. However, is there need for more electoral reform? Look, for example, at the number of seats that the SNP have in relation to their share of the vote. In terms of share of the vote the SNP have only 4.7%; the LDs have 7.9% and UKIP 12.6%. In terms of seats the SNP have 56, the LDs have eight and UKIP only one.
Kevan Helsby MBE
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