Letter: The people decide how to elect MPs

G. F. Steele
Thursday 08 May 1997 23:02 BST
Comments

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

Sir: John Diamond (letter, 7 May) says that 44.4 per cent of the voters have the government they voted for, but it would be interesting to know how many of these voters had read the Labour Party manifesto. How many were in fact tactical voters who chose Labour as the best means of unseating a Conservative? Exactly how many people have got the kind of government they would really like?

Calculation of how many seats Labour and the rest would have obtained under PR ignores the fact that the parties as we know them would not have existed under PR. Both Labour and the Conservatives would have long ago split and we would by now have four or five largish parties and a few fringe ones.

We have to accept that very few voters will get exactly what they want from any political party. It is more important to have a government whose policies can be supported, in general, by a majority of voters.

G F STEELE

Ipswich

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in