Reading that Andy Burnham wants to push electoral reform forward and move the UK towards proportional representation (Report, 29 September), I found myself shouting at the screen.
I come from Italy, where I have seen proportional systems at work. They drive a wedge between MPs and their constituents. They reward tribalism (yes, even more than here). They leave large parts of the electorate hostage to the whims of tiny parties, and force parties into ragtag coalitions that produce unstable, ineffective governments. And for all that, people do not seem to feel any better represented.
Having lived in the UK since 2014 and watched its parties with an outsider’s eyes, I still see first past the post as the lesser of two evils.
Brexit exposed a complete lack of leadership in David Cameron’s Conservative party, and it was an act of unprecedented self-harm that we are all still paying for, quite literally. But it also showed that parties outside the big two can exert enough pressure to force the party in power to adapt and, alas, to listen to voters.
Labour, meanwhile, has reinvented itself remarkably: from Ed Miliband’s soft left to Jeremy Corbyn’s more radical programme, and back again when that proved ineffective. Would a major party put itself through so much self-scrutiny without the incentives of first past the post? Or would it have split into several streams, perhaps more representative but far less effective, squandering its history as so many parties of the Italian left have done?
As a settled-status resident who expects to become a citizen this year, and is hoping to vote for Labour at the next general election, I can only say: please don’t do this.
Gian Lorenzo Spisso
Bristol
