Scotland’s fairer voting system

Sir, – Some of the commentators in England have deemed it unfair that Ukip’s eight million-plus votes only yielded one Westminster seat, whereas the SNP’s smaller total vote sent 56 Scottish MPs to London.

The comparison is, of course, odious because it conveniently overlooks the number of constituencies available to the SNP compared to those available to Ukip. The same complaint could be made against the Welsh Plaid Cymru and any of the Northern Ireland parties.

A fairer comparison would be the percentage of the total votes cast in the smaller countries as opposed to the UK as a whole, because the substantially larger population in the biggest country, England, will always make comparisons within the total UK vote meaningless but useful for having a pop at Scotland or the SNP.

For example, the SNP polled more than 50% of the total votes cast in Scotland compared to the less than 40% polled by the Tories in winning the UK election. Another meaningless comparison.

The problem lies within the first past the post voting system much favoured by the Tories because it mitigates in their favour – and there is already a proposal to implement further boundary changes during this parliament to enhance the prospects of a complete victory in five years’ time.

Ruth Davidson regularly points to the healthy number of Conservative members at Holyrood whose number would certainly be reduced but for the fairer voting system her party enjoys in Scotland, which equates the number of elected members to the popular vote for each party.

It is not only much fairer but gives the voter the sense that casting their ballot does count for something and might help to reduce voter apathy. Allan MacDougall. Forth Park, Bridge of Allan.