Letter: What about the majority who didn't vote for Kaufman?

I SEE that 23,704 of the residents of Gorton voted for Mr Kaufman, while the other 40,111 voted for someone else or not at all. On seeing Mr Kaufman, those 40,111 are entitled to say: "That's not my MP. I haven't got one." On the other hand, voters in the Republic of Ireland have an 80 per cent chance that at least one of the TDs returned in their constituency will be someone for whom they have voted - "My TD." This seems to me to be a definitive argument for abandoning first-past-the-post.

Ireland has 41 constituencies, returning a total of 166 TDs; an average of just over four per constituency. The same system in the UK would result in 163 constituencies; on average half the size of the current one-member Euro-constituencies and one-fourteenth the size of the new multi-member Euro-constituencies. "Huge multi-member constituencies"?

A substantial majority of all the votes cast in parliamentary elections in this country have been wasted because they have not helped elect anyone. Is Mr Kaufman saying that is good for governance of this country?

His refusal to acknowledge that Mr Blair's massive majority is no more justified than Mrs Thatcher's was is indicative of the anti-democratic views of many Labour and Tory MPs. It depresses me when those who ought to know better peddle ill-informed rubbish.

SIMON GAZELEY

Bath