14th May 2007

You note that Conservatives nationally won 40% of the vote and Labour 27% (Wilts and Glos Standard 10th May 2007). However our electoral system means Tories gained a whopping 50% of the seats while Labour got just 18% of the seats. In the Cotswolds Tories now have an unhealthy 38 out of 44 seats. Is it perhaps any wonder that only 2 out of 5 bothered to vote?

Indeed in many areas across the country we saw winning parties achieve exaggerated and undeserved majorities while both Labour voters in parts of southern England and Tory voters in many northern metropolitan areas don't have the representation they deserve. In some places people voted more in favour of one party and instead saw another in control of the council!

In Westminster elections Conservatives usually get punished by the first past the post electoral system: Labour won their previous large majority with only 21% of the total electorate yet gained 159 more seats than the Tories who only polled 3% less than them.

There is too little debate about many issues. Both the main parties for example claim to be green: the Tories even say "Vote Blue, Go Green". Yet the reality is that both support more road building, doubling airports, Trident, the war in Iraq and nuclear power and even blocking EU Environmental legislation. Scottish Friends of the Earth last month said that Tories have the least firm commitment to environmental policies and that only the Green party have policies to address climate change.

We urgently need proportional representation to reinvigorate politics and give voice to other sections of our communities. People will then have more of a chance to vote for what they really believe in rather than having to vote to keep the other side out.

Philip Booth, Gloucestershire Green Party.