British Elections

Having fought and won, with ever increasing majorities, 10 parliamentary elections in Britain, may I intrude into the debate in your letters column between Matthew Shugart (Jan. 1) and Tony Oakes (Jan. 9)?

Mr. Oakes is evidently a supporter of the fragmented Social Liberal Democrat alliance that the British electorate has rejected every time it has had the opportunity to do so. Your readers should not take too seriously his moans about “pendulum politics” and the “divide between north and south.” Britain, like America, has its problems but the vast majority of British people, in all parts of the island, today earn more, keep more, and invest more than at any time in their history; while their government, especially the prime minister, enjoys more international respect than at any time since the Second World War.

Mr. Shugart makes more sense than Mr. Oakes. He recognizes that under proportional representation a candidate’s chance of getting elected depends hardly at all on his or her appeal to his constituents but largely on how high up his name appears on a “list,” drawn up by his party, usually behind closed doors. And the result, as I can testify from having seen proportional representation at work in parliaments all over Europe, is that minorities all too often impose their wishes on the majority--damaging, not strengthening, democracy.

For years, I served as a member of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg. Weekends, I had to fly back to England to attend to my constituency duties. Not so the members from proportional representation countries. They took their ease in Strasbourg because proportional representation made them far less dependent on keeping the folks back home happy about what they were doing.

The other advantage of “first past the post” voting is that it helps to elect strong governments. A clear swing among the voters is translated into an even stronger swing in the legislature, so that the party winning power, more often than not, can get its legislation passed.

Winston Churchill, as always got it right. “Ours” he said, “is the worst system of election there is--except for all the others.”

SIR ELDON GRIFFITHS

House of Commons

London