Single Transferable Vote system would improve democracy - Yorkshire Post Letters

Sheffield LibDem candidate Joe Otten will likely agree that it’s not just South Yorkshire where the skewed first past the post voting system produces local councils with massive over-representation of the ‘winning’ party to such an extent that the resulting council make-up is akin to that of the so-called parliament of North Korea.Areas in the north-east England are exclusively red others in the south-east exclusively blue.

Scotland solved this in 2007 by introducing the Single Transferable Vote (STV) for local elections abandoning first past the post.

It is to the credit of the SNP that they gave up a system which benefited them in favour of STV which is both more proportional and has the merit of allowing voters a choice between candidates of a single party.

Conservatives north of the border are largely a much more moderate fair-minded breed than their ruthless southern English namesakes and it is noteworthy that many of their councillors applaud STV.

Without it they might not win any seats but many see that a variety of viewpoints expressed in council can actually lead to better local services and improved representation at national level.