Holyrood reform

would care to answer some of these questions?

JOHN PETER Monks Road, Airdrie It is good news that the Presiding Officer intends to establish an independent commission to review the workings of the Scottish Parliament (Your report, 26 October), but it will need more than just “an MOT” to achieve the desired outcomes.

The fundamental problem is that the voting system used to elect our MSPS is a party voting system. So it should be no surprise to anyone that politicians elected by a party voting system behave like party politicians. This affects almost every aspect of the work of the Parliament.

The present additional member voting system – a party voting system – should be replaced by a system based on the single transferable vote and proportional representation, or STV-PR. Then all MSPS would be elected on the same basis and their accountability to the local voters would be significantly increased.

With STV-PR each elected MSP would be elected because he or she had obtained the support of a personal ‘constituency’ of voters. That would do much to reduce the power of the parties within the Parliament and enhance the role of MSPS as scrutinising parliamentarians.

JAMES GILMOUR East Parkside, Edinburgh