New party prospects

SIR – I would like to draw the attention of your readers to the lessons of the present party political situation in Germany, given that half of German MPS are elected from party lists.

As with similar systems of proportional representation, the electorate decides in what proportion political parties are elected to parliament. They are then expected to combine to form a coalition government.

The effect is that parties suppress their differences in favour of whatever they can agree on as the government programme. The public thus loses its ability to select between different ideas that the parties may advance, hence the terms “centre-left” and “centre-right”.

The consequence, which we now see in Germany, is that after a time the electorate, in desperation at being ignored, starts to vote for parties with more “extreme” views, resulting in instability at the heart of the system.

Contrast this with the British system, which, by raising a very high entry bar for new parties, forces existing parties to accommodate and reconcile a range of opinions while presenting a clear choice of political principles to the electorate. It also enables the electorate to decide between individuals – a choice that, under the list system, is made (undemocratically) by political parties. Anthony Pick

Newbury, Berkshire