YP Letters: Lords is only one fault in our dysfunctional political system

I AGREE with Bill Carmichael’s comments. However he misses the root cause of Parliament’s dysfunctionality in the UK, of which the Lords is just one aspect (The Yorkshire Post, February 2).

The continuation of the duopoly of eternal Labour-Tory-Labour rule for nearly 100 years makes it impossible for other political movements to have any power or gain significant MPs.

Parliamentary evolution effectively stopped in 1928, the year my mother was born, when all women got the vote, and the first-past-the-post system is deliberately designed to stop other parties gaining any power. No party has enjoyed a substantial majority for many, many years or, to put it another way, most people after every election never get an MP elected, and their ideas are ignored. Then ritualistic Lab-Con bickering takes the place of effective formation of policies.

We need comprehensive electoral and constitutional reform, which we will never get with these two self-interested parties controlling the system. We need:

Proportional representation, with MPs in proportion to the number of people voting for their party.

Constituency boundaries drawn up by a non-political body whose actions cannot be vetoed by politicians on a regular basis.

A written constitution which can bring crooked politicians to book by legal action, if they break the rules, like in the US.

Compulsorily binding referendums on any issue which gains enough supporters, as in Switzerland.

Politicians and other state employees to have equivalent salaries, with strict control of expenses.

Political parties to not use public monies for propaganda.

Abolition of the ridiculous honours system.

Reform or abolition of the Lords, for the reasons given by Bill Carmichael.

So when is The Yorkshire Post going to support PR, when a “Yorkshire” party could get dozens of MPs to achieve power to develop Yorkshire, instead of the assorted party hacks we now have?

From: John Turley, Dronfield Woodhouse.

I AGREE to a certain extent 
with R Hartley (The Yorkshire Post, January 31) when he/she says that there would not be a hung parliament if Boris Johnson was PM.

If Boris Johnson was made 
PM now, Jeremy Corbyn would ‘walk it’ at the next general election.