We must keep vocal minorities on the sidelines

Bill Ridley raises the tired old complaint that the winning party at the general election did not achieve an absolute majority of votes, although, as has been pointed out time and time again, in a democracy with more than two parties normally gaining significant support, it is all but impossible for any one party to get more than 50% of the vote. Indeed I believe that, since the war, only Labour under Clement

Attlee achieved this figure.

If one wished to change our electoral system it is not through proportional representation, which always leads to the smaller parties actually controlling the policies, and transfers the decision about who is to run the country from the people to party fixers, while generating weak governments, but through the system used in Switzerland.

We have visited that beautiful country every year for over 20 years, until stopped by the pandemic, and have many Swiss friends.

Their system of referenda, by which major strategic decisions are taken, ensures that it is really the will of the people which is honoured, not the wishes of the political class.

We could implement a similar concept here, in which, if sufficiently large enough support, a figure as agreed in the constitution, is gained for a proposition, the matter then goes to a binding referendum.

In Switzerland that method has prevented self interested Swiss politicians from joining the EU over the wishes of the voters.

I suspect that those who constantly characterise our first past the post system as undemocratic would baulk at the thought of allowing regular referenda in the UK, as they are aware that the innate good sense of the British people would ensure that the agendas of obsessive minorities would get short shrift.

Colin Bullen