To get better politicians, we need AV

THE No to AV campaign has brought out the worst in British politics. Even the Chancellor seems have no shame in telling the public bare-faced lies about the AV system and its supporters, and the Prime Minister has supported him.

The worst offenders are those from the Lords who face no elections at all, John Reid, John Prescott and Sayeeda Warsi. And why are they doing it? Because they face no come back under the current constitution, no consequences.

Even if the newspapers did call them to account more vigorously, and even if the Electoral Commission does intervene we will still be stuck with these people – David Cameron and George Osborne because they sit in safe seats and the other three because they sit in the unelected Lords.

Tom Richmond (Yorkshire Post, April 25) says he wants better politicians. To get this we need a better voting system, its our only control over those who use their office to spread deceit.

From: Keith Beaumont, Bradford Road, Birkenshaw, Bradford.

REGARDLESS of the voting system, it will make little difference as to how our country is run, or should I say controlled.

The elected Ministers, whatever their alliances, will be just as at present, completely controlled by the EU bureaucracy in Brussels.

Only when we have a referendum on EU membership will our country see a new dawn and bring our country back to self-ownership.

From: JG Riseley, Harcourt Drive, Harrogate, North Yorkshire.

EW JOHNSON (Yorkshire Post, April 20) has spent more time and effort on the AV/First-Past-The-Post issue than many other members of the electorate and for this I salute him. I would still, however, dispute his conclusion.

Supporters of AV are perhaps remiss in explaining what AV does without explaining why it does it. AV basically seeks to reduce a multi-candidate contest to a straight fight between the two strongest candidates.

It does this to eliminate vote splitting and so stop the result being dependent upon the accident of what other candidates are running.

If the AV winner is different from the FPTP winner, this is not a travesty. It simply means that the FPTP winner owed that success to vote splitting.

From: Colin McNamee, Ella Street, Hull.

AS the Lib-Lab-Cons play their game of political football with what after all is our, not their, democracy, one side calls foul in the first half of the game and wants to bring in the law.

The political parties called the game and chose the sides and did so behind closed doors while cobbling together a deal to enable power, not democracy, to be achieved through a coalition Government.

This is the result of a voting system, First-Past-The-Post, which is well past its use by date in the political make-up.

From: Ann Hodgson, Spennithorne, Leyburn.

IF the AV voting system is adopted, my voting habit is unlikely to change. It will be a single mark – presumably No 1 instead of an X – against the name of the candidate I wish to represent me. No alternative vote, no tactical voting.

Tory years left sick NHS

From: Mac Staveley, Newcomen Street, Hull.

I REFER to two letters printed recently (Yorkshire Post, April 14). Firstly from Alan Chapman who I suppose with tongue in cheek suggests that John Redwood’s ideas could be the saviour of the National Heath Service, God forbid.

It appears that Mr Chapman looking through his blue-tinted specs forgets the state of our Health Service in 1997 after 20 years of loving care by a Conservative government.

I recall ambulances wandering around the country with seriously ill patients searching for a bed, serious often vital operations been cancelled sometimes more than once due to the lack of beds or staff.

Waiting times for urgent treatment, including replacement hips and knees could be two years if you were lucky. In fact, the whole service was slowly disintegrating and frankly not fit for purpose.

Then came that nasty Labour lot wasting millions of pounds firstly by massively increasing front line staff, people like consultants, doctors and nurses, leading to a massive reduction in waiting times, this surely needed an increase in some form of administration.

Next they spent further millions on new hospitals and improving existing ones. In Hull, Castle Hill Hospital now has a new cancer and heart clinics, plus additional new state-of-art operating theatres.

At Hull Royal Infirmary, a new mother and baby unit plus a just-opened modern eye clinic. Round the city, new heath centres have appeared providing a whole host of medical services to local people.

The second letter in the same issue from Paul Nightingale spells out the true feelings of the many Conservatives when he condemns the 1945 Labour government for spawning what he calls this monster of a health service. This supports the views of many on the Right of the Tory Party that consider the NHS a 63 year mistake.