British electoral system is unfair and unrepresentative

Nigel Farage is right about one thing. The British electoral policy of ‘first past the post’ is “a bankrupt system”.

In last week’s election, the Conservatives increased their percentage of the popular vote from 36.1%, in 2010, to 36.9%, with a corresponding seat increase of 28.

The Labour Party also increased its percent of the popular vote, from 29% to 30.4%, yet lost 24 seats and Farage’s UKIP attained 12.9% of the vote, but ended up with just one seat. How representative is that? Surely, a truly representative parliamentary democracy should reflect, in as far as possible, the voting wishes of the electorate by returning the commensurate number of candidates.

The ‘first past the post’ system, by its very nature, cannot achieve that. Let’s hope we never adopt such an unfair electoral system here.

Paul Galvin

Minane Bridge

Co.Cork