LETTER: Ditch first past the post rather than moving constituency boundaries

This is not the work of the Government, but that of the Boundary Commission, it says on its homepage that this it is being done to make constituencies ‘more equal’ but you must look elsewhere to see this is only regarding voter numbers.

It is simply moving the deck chairs rather than saving the sinking ship, an electoral system where votes are mostly meaningless.

The proposed changes nationally are mooted to give Tories a further 40 seats or so, without any extra votes.

Here in Warrington some 46,000 voted for the two winning candidates, but almost 60,000 found their votes were meaningless due to FPTP, why bother voting?

The borough elections highlight this disconnection.

One candidate was elected with 619 voters, another got 1,551 votes but wasn’t.

Little wonder turnout was as low as 21 per cent.

The Conservatives would have almost doubled their seats if their allocation had been proportional to votes cast, they could have become a real opposition, but not a squeak and it’s hardly surprising with their government in Westminster having a colossal majority despite polling just 43 per cent of the vote.

It can do anything it wants, worrying in the best of times, but catastrophic with an extreme Brexit government that has only a passing acquaintance with telling the truth.

One correspondent to this page suggested that true opposition in Warrington was only from within the Labour party itself, he may be right.

Recently in the Commons, MP Andrew Mitchell led a revolt of fellow Tories against overseas aid cuts which, like much of what this government does, was not debated or voted on.

They were refused a vote, but I’m sure if there had been one, Andy Carter MP would have dutifully trotted through the government lobby again.

We deserve better.

Little wonder the country remains so divided, and that The Economist classes Britain as a ‘Flawed Democracy’ in its world review.

ALLAN RALSTON Callands